M5.3 Shallow Earthquake Recorded Near Vanuatu Islands

GEOFON GFZ reports M5.3 near Vanuatu Islands, with a 10.0 km catalog depth.

Published 2026-09-08T01:14:32.373Z

The event began at Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:52:03 GMT. GEOFON GFZ reports magnitude 5.3, 10.0 km catalog depth, and coordinates -19.831, 170.210.

The catalog location label is Vanuatu Islands; no separate nearest-city field was supplied with this solution. By catalog depth, this is a shallow event. The magnitude-derived energy estimate is 5.25e+12 joules, or about 1,254 tons of TNT equivalent; that calculation describes source energy, not local damage.

The current catalog entry does not include a public felt-report count. No separate intensity or catalog-significance detail is available from this provider record. No official casualty or damage statement is attached to the normalized event evidence.

GEOFON GFZ has not supplied a review status in the normalized record. No station-count, phase-count, residual, gap, or uncertainty fields were supplied in the normalized record. No alternate network solution is attached to this record.

The provider record does not carry a tsunami flag at publication time. Magnitude, depth, and location can change as monitoring networks add observations and review the solution.