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Magnitude 6.1 earthquake recorded Fiji region

The United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 6.1 earthquake Fiji region on 5 November 2026.

What this record does not establish →

Magnitude 6.1 on the moment magnitude (Mww) scale A scale marked at whole magnitudes from 6 to 9, with the recorded magnitude 6.1 marked on it. The scale is logarithmic: each whole step is about thirty-two times the energy of the one below. 6 7 8 9 6.1
Magnitude 6.1, on the moment magnitude (Mww) scale, solution status “reviewed”. The scale is logarithmic: each whole step is roughly thirty-two times the energy of the step below it, so distance along this axis is not distance in size. Magnitude, location, depth and time are all this record establishes — it says nothing about shaking felt, damage or casualties.
Depth cross-section: 540.8 km below the surface A vertical section from the surface down to 700 kilometres, with the hypocentre this record gives marked at 540.8 kilometres. Surface 175 km 350 km 525 km 700 km 540.8 km
The hypocentre — where the rupture began — is recorded at 540.8 kilometres below the surface, Fiji region. Depth is one of the four things this record establishes. It is not a measure of severity, and nothing here indicates what was felt at the surface.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on the moment magnitude (Mww) scale at 17:21 UTC on 5 November 2026. USGS gives the depth as 540.8 km and describes the location as “Fiji 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
5 November 2026, 17:21 UTC (as recorded by the source)
Source last revised
5 November 2026, 19:28 UTC
Published here
5 November 2026, 17:45 UTC

Evidence

Record identifier
us7000tw8r
Retrieved
5 November 2026, 19:30 UTC
Snapshot checksum
6182c9caff87b353fecf93ac4d592134dc2a11daa720f5b36d1ea3090004ab0f
Attribution
Earthquake data: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). — USGS data licensing guidance
Where each figure above comes from (8 values)
ValueAs publishedOriginSource field or calculation
Magnitude 6.1 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 Fiji region field properties.place
Depth 540.8 km calculation round(geometry.coordinates[2], 1)
Event time 2026-11-05T17:21:45.897000+00:00 calculation datetime.fromtimestamp(properties.time / 1000, tz=UTC)
USGS reports milliseconds since the Unix epoch, in UTC.
Latitude -21.1692 field geometry.coordinates[1]
Longitude -178.6458 field geometry.coordinates[0]
Solution status reviewed field properties.status

Wording template earthquake version 1.0.

Revision history

  • 5 November 2026, 17:45 UTC — First publication

    Assembled from the source record listed under evidence.

What this record does not establish

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.