M4.2 earthquake 144 km NW of Tocopilla, Chile
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck 144 km NW of Tocopilla, Chile on Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 8:38 PM GMT-4 (00:38 UTC), 6 km (4 mi) below the surface.
A larger quake followed: M4.5 83 km NNW of Tocopilla, Chile. This one was a foreshock.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 4.2 (Mwr, regional moment), light
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2021-04-21 00:38:44 UTC
- Depth
- 6.0 km (3.7 mi), shallow
- Epicenter
- 21.354° S, 71.355° W
- Region
- Chile
- Felt reports
- 2
- Tsunami flag
- No
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
Did you feel it?
2 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was I, not felt shaking.
Fault motion and ground failure
How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.
- Faulting
- Normal
- Moment magnitude
- 4.2 Mwr
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 354°, dip 49°, rake -85°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 167°, dip 41°, rake -95°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Location uncertainty
- About 5.3 km horizontally, 1.5 km in depth
- Magnitude uncertainty
- ±0.05
- Depth from
- From modeling of broad-band P waveforms
- Station coverage gap
- 147°
- Stations used
- 62
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 1.5 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 us6000e3cp. Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 9:15 AM UTC.