The Azuero Earthquake

9–13 October 2026

At 12:56 p.m. on 9 October a fault beneath Panama's Azuero Peninsula slipped sideways along some 105 km, releasing a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, the country's largest since 1882. About 3.4 million people felt moderate shaking or worse; around Tonosí it was severe. A tsunami threat for the Pacific coast was lifted 1 h 44 min later. By 10 October civil protection had counted no deaths, 27 injured and 2,097 damaged buildings. 74 aftershocks of M4 or more followed in four days.

What happened

Aftershocks M4+ per dayUTC days

9 October counts only the 6 hours after the mainshock; 13 October runs to 06:39 UTC, where the data ends.

“Significant damage is likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.”USGS PAGER alert, 9 October

Print map (PDF) Full-resolution image

Sources. USGS ShakeMap v10, PAGER, finite-fault rupture and ComCat (M4+ through 2026-10-13; earlier M7+ since 1900); SINAPROC via Wikipedia (as of 2026-10-10); PTWC messages via The Watchers; plate boundaries PB2002 (Bird 2003); rivers HydroRIVERS v1.0; Natural Earth. Shaking is modelled intensity, shown on land; exposure counts are PAGER's. Times are Panama local time (UTC−5) unless marked UTC. Figures provisional. Web Mercator; the printed map is Albers equal-area conic.