M5.1 earthquake – Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck in the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge region at 20:59 UTC on 8 Oct 2026, at a depth of 10 km, according to USGS and GFZ.

Reported by 2 agencies · revised from M5.2

Data: USGS, GFZ · updated 2026-10-13 15:27 UTC · reviewed

Magnitude: 5.1moderate
moment magnitude (W phase) (mww)
revised from 5.2
Depth: 10 km
Status: Reviewed
Origin time: 2026-10-08 20:59:30 UTC
Epicentre: 30.535° N, 41.923° W

Circles show this event and others within 45 km from 7 days before to 30 days after. Lines: plate boundaries and GEM active faults. Open on the live map

Nearby places

Distance and estimated shaking at nearby places
Place	Distance	Est. shaking
No towns within 400 km. This is a remote area.

Shaking is an estimate from the intensity prediction equation of Allen, Wald & Worden (2012), not an observation. Local ground and buildings can change it by a level or more. Likely felt out to about 142 km.

Every agency's solution

Agencies locate earthquakes with their own stations and methods, so their numbers differ. We match reports of the same event by time, distance and magnitude and show them side by side. The headline uses USGS, which has been reviewed by an analyst.

Agency	Magnitude	Depth	Epicentre	Time offset	Status
GFZGFZ via GEOFON, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences	5.2 Mwwas 5.2	10 km	30.54° N, 41.80° W	+0.9 s	Automatic · 2 revisions
USGSheadlineUSGS NEIC via U.S. Geological Survey	5.1 mww	10 km	30.53° N, 41.92° W	–	Reviewed

How big was it?

Felt by most people over a wide area. Can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.

It released roughly the energy of 674 t of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step means about 32 times more energy and 10 times larger waves on a seismogram. Depth matters too: at 10 km this was a shallow earthquake, which is felt more strongly at the surface than a deeper one of the same size.

Compare M5.1 with M4.1

M5.1 releases about 32× the energy of M4.1, and its waves are about 10× taller on a seismogram. Energy: 674 t of TNT vs 21 t of TNT.

Each square is the energy of one M4.1. Energy from log₁₀E = 1.5M + 4.8.

Aftershocks and nearby activity

1 later earthquake within 45 km; the largest was M4.9 4 days ago. Aftershock rates usually fall off roughly in proportion to 1/time.

Aftershocks

Mainshock M5.1

1 later earthquake nearby. Aftershock rates typically fall off roughly as 1/time (Omori's law).

Aftershocks
Time after mainshock (hours)	Magnitude	Depth (km)
0.58	4.9	10

4.9Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge10-08 21:34

Did you feel it?

Reports from people help show where shaking was strong. They are anonymous and shown here in aggregate.

Reports on SeismoAtlas

No reports yet.

Event id gfz2026ttek. First recorded here 8 Oct 2026, 21:09:10 UTC. Solutions: GFZ (geofon:gfz2026ttek); USGS (usgs:us6000u11v). Cite as: SeismoAtlas, “M5.1 earthquake – Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge”, https://seismoatlas.com/earthquake/gfz2026ttek-m5-1-earthquake-northern-mid-atlantic-ridge, data from USGS, GFZ.

JSON: /api/v1/events/gfz2026ttek. SeismoAtlas is not an official warning service.