Earlier record, added at launch

This record already existed when PlainRecord first read this source. It is published here for completeness and is not a newly occurring event.

Earthquakes · USGS earthquakes

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake recorded South Sandwich Islands region

The United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 6.0 earthquake South Sandwich Islands region on 12 August 2026.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the moment magnitude (Mww) scale at 11:47 UTC on 12 August 2026. USGS gives the depth as 10.0 km and describes the location as “South Sandwich Islands region”.

USGS lists the solution status for this record as “reviewed”. The agency revises earthquake parameters as more instrument data arrives, so magnitude and depth can change after first publication. Any such change is shown in the revision history on this page.

This brief reports only what the USGS record states: magnitude, location, depth and time. It does not describe shaking felt, damage, casualties or any consequence of the earthquake, because the record used here does not establish those things.

Times

These are different things and are not interchangeable.

Event occurred: 12 August 2026, 11:47 UTC (as recorded by the source)
Source last revised: 4 September 2026, 13:13 UTC
Published here: 12 September 2026, 01:09 UTC

Evidence

Original record: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000tk74
Record identifier: us6000tk74
Retrieved: 12 September 2026, 01:09 UTC
Snapshot checksum: 266b9c32285032366e8c4873aef5f7d84a73bea1493580edd295cb2b9a837a7e
Attribution: Earthquake data: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). — USGS data licensing guidance

Where each figure above comes from (8 values)

Value	As published	Origin	Source field or calculation
Magnitude	6.0	calculation	round(properties.mag, 1) Rounded to one decimal for display; the exact value is kept.
Magnitude scale	moment magnitude (Mww)	calculation	MAG_TYPE_LABELS[properties.magType] Unrecognised scale codes are reported without a name.
Location as described by USGS	South Sandwich Islands region	field	properties.place
Depth	10.0 km	calculation	round(geometry.coordinates[2], 1)
Event time	2026-08-12T11:47:12.188000+00:00	calculation	datetime.fromtimestamp(properties.time / 1000, tz=UTC) USGS reports milliseconds since the Unix epoch, in UTC.
Latitude	-60.2463	field	geometry.coordinates[1]
Longitude	-29.03	field	geometry.coordinates[0]
Solution status	reviewed	field	properties.status

Wording template earthquake version 1.0.

Revision history

12 September 2026, 01:09 UTC — First publication

Assembled from the source record listed under evidence. This record predates the start of this service's coverage and was added when the source was first read.

Limits of this brief

Reviewed earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and above, worldwide. Only magnitude, location, depth and time are reported, together with any later revision USGS makes. Automatic solutions USGS has not yet reviewed, events it classifies as something other than an earthquake, and anything below magnitude 6.0 are not reported. Effects, damage and casualties are never reported, because the USGS record used here does not establish them.

If something here is wrong, write to [email protected] quoting the record identifier above. Corrections are recorded on this page, not made silently.