M5.0 earthquake 47 km NNW of Iquique, Chile
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 47 km NNW of Iquique, Chile on Fri, May 17, 2019, 10:16 AM GMT-4 (14:16 UTC), 69 km (43 mi) below the surface.
A larger quake followed: M5.2 68 km NNW of Iquique, Chile. This one was a foreshock.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.0 (Mww, W-phase moment), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2019-05-17 14:16:24 UTC
- Depth
- 69.5 km (43.2 mi), shallow
- Epicenter
- 19.802° S, 70.279° W
- Region
- Chile
- Felt reports
- 21
- Tsunami flag
- No
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
Magnitude estimates
Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | Mww, W-phase moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.071 · 19 stations |
| 4.97 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.0 | Mwr, regional moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Moment tensor · Reviewed |
Did you feel it?
21 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VI, strong shaking.
Fault motion and ground failure
How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.
- Faulting
- Oblique normal
- Moment magnitude
- 5.0 Mww
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 228°, dip 37°, rake -37°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 349°, dip 69°, rake -121°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Location uncertainty
- About 5.1 km horizontally, 2.7 km in depth
- Magnitude uncertainty
- ±0.07
- Depth from
- From location
- Station coverage gap
- 83°
- Stations used
- 134
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.0 and up: 1 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.
After
Earthquakes todayChile earthquakesLive radar here
Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us70003mi2 (also filed as iscgem615738343). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 11:53 AM UTC.