M5.3 Shallow Earthquake Recorded Near Tonga Islands

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

Published 2026-10-15T13:54:29.131Z

The event began at Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:29:31 GMT. GEOFON GFZ reports magnitude 5.3, 10.0 km catalog depth, and coordinates -15.156, -173.379.

The catalog location label is Tonga 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 5.82e+12 joules, or about 1,391 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.