M7.3 earthquake in Vanuatu on March 30, 2026

On March 30, 2026 at 08:44 UTC the ground shook with a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The epicenter was 51 km northeast of Luganville, with the focus 121 km deep. The focus was at intermediate depth, which softens the shaking at the surface compared with a shallow quake of the same size.

7.3magnitude

121 kmdepth

08:44time UTC

greenUSGS alert

Live earthquake map →

Key facts

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

Nearest cities

Sunshine Coast (Australia)1,963 km
Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)2,310 km
Central Coast (Australia)2,594 km
Merauke (Indonesia)3,049 km
Jayapura (Indonesia)3,268 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 44 quakes of magnitude 4.5 or more within 150 km, the strongest M6.3.

M6.3 · Oct 8, 09:00 UTC71 km
M6.1 · Oct 25, 02:24 UTC44 km
M6.1 · Aug 16, 03:20 UTC95 km
M5.5 · Oct 24, 06:43 UTC83 km
M5.2 · Oct 9, 13:51 UTC68 km
M5.2 · Sep 13, 07:19 UTC21 km
M5.1 · Jun 28, 07:05 UTC56 km
M5.1 · Mar 30, 09:02 UTC10 km

Regional history

Since 1976 there have been 200 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more within 300 km. The strongest was M7.7 (October 7, 2009).

M7.7 · October 7, 2009279 km
M7.5 · November 26, 1999143 km
M7.4 · October 7, 2009271 km
M7.3 · December 17, 2024273 km
M7.3 · February 6, 1999287 km