In brief
The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) recorded a magnitude 5.1 quake beneath the south Pacific near Fiji, at a depth of 557 km, on Monday, Nov. 10 at 19:09 GMT. Xinhua reported the same event with no damage or casualties. A Facebook post and a volcanology site described a magnitude 5.3 shock at similar depth and location, showing slight disagreement among observers.
At 19:09 GMT on Monday, Nov. 10, 2026, a deep seismic event struck the southern Pacific Ocean just south of the Fiji Islands, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported.
The GFZ fixed the quake’s epicentre at 23.55° S, 179.57° W, and estimated its focal depth at around 557 kilometres beneath the seabed. The institution gave the body‑of‑water event a magnitude of 5.1 and noted that no damage or casualties had been reported.
The Xinhua news agency published a brief bulletin that echoed the GFZ data, citing the research centre as its source.
However, other observers posted slightly different figures shortly after the event. A user on Facebook claimed the seismograph recorded a magnitude of 5.3 at 00:46:59 on the same day, with depths listed as 538 km and 550 km on separate reports.
These differing numbers are likely the result of distinct seismic networks and processing methods. The Facebook account explicitly referenced “the USGS final report,” but no direct link to the official United States Geological Survey data was available. Another volcanology site, volcanodiscovery.com, noted a strong 5.3‑magnitude quake occurring around 12:47 pm local time on Monday, also about 500 km (311 mi) from Fiji.
Both GFZ and the other observers agree that the earthquake was deep – far below the typical shallow‑zone events seen in the Pacific Rim. In the Australian subduction zone, for instance, one would expect a magnitude 5 event to arise from a depth of less than 70 km, whereas here the tremor was almost 600 km down.
Public officials and emergency services in Fiji did not issue any emergency alerts or damage assessments in response to the event. This lack of response is consistent with the depth and magnitude, which would have produced only mild shaking on the islands, if any at all.
Tectonic researchers note that deep‑mantle earthquakes of this size are relatively uncommon and often receive little media attention. The seismic wave travel times recorded by neighbouring island networks were mainly faint and overlapped, making precise magnitude determination challenging.
Even so, the event underscores the global reach of modern seismic monitoring networks, as instruments in Fiji, New Zealand, and other Pacific island nations all registered the tremor simultaneously.
As no aftershocks have been reported in the first 24 hours post‑event, seismologists are waiting to see whether the quake reveals any secondary activity, which could illuminate the processes happening at such great depth.