M6.5 earthquake in Papua New Guinea on December 22, 2025

Strong M6.5 quake: December 22, 2025, 10:31 UTC, epicenter 45 km north of Goroka. The rupture began 107 km below the surface. The focus was at intermediate depth, which softens the shaking at the surface compared with a shallow quake of the same size.

6.5magnitude

107 kmdepth

10:31time UTC

greenUSGS alert

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Key facts

12 people reported feeling it to USGS. The USGS PAGER system issued a green alert, expecting little impact.

Nearest cities

Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)456 km
Jayapura (Indonesia)640 km
Merauke (Indonesia)646 km
Timika (Indonesia)989 km
Manokwari (Indonesia)1,382 km

Did you feel an earthquake?

Report it to seismologists. These reports help work out quickly where the shaking was strongest. It takes a minute.

Report to USGS (Did You Feel It?)Report to EMSC (LastQuake)

Aftershocks

Since then USGS has recorded 22 quakes of magnitude 4.5 or more within 150 km, the strongest M6.4.

M6.4 · Sep 20, 09:17 UTC67 km
M5.9 · Jan 20, 07:21 UTC64 km
M5.7 · Feb 21, 06:18 UTC54 km
M5.5 · Aug 16, 10:59 UTC135 km
M5.4 · Sep 20, 12:45 UTC81 km
M5.4 · Feb 25, 11:14 UTC55 km
M5.3 · May 10, 16:34 UTC48 km
M5.0 · Sep 14, 22:06 UTC130 km

Regional history

Since 1976 there have been 119 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 300 km. The strongest was M7.6 (September 10, 2022).

M7.6 · September 10, 2022126 km
M7.4 · February 8, 1987242 km
M7.2 · December 22, 1997259 km
M7.2 · May 15, 1992229 km
M7.2 · June 24, 1986225 km