M 5.9 in New Zealand on 16 Jul 2026 09:14 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1552156
Earthquake Magnitude: 5.9M
Depth: 76.4 Km
Lat/Lon: -45.0434 , 167.6107
Event Date: 16 Jul 2026 09:14 UTC
16 Jul 2026 21:14 Local
Exposed Population: 130 thousand in MMI>=IV
Inserted at: 16 Jul 2026 09:31 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
2 (New Zealand)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 GDACS score
NEIC 0 0
us7000t0xb Scaled population (raster) 0  
  C1 shakemap 0  
  C2 shakemap 0  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Detailed event map. European Union, 2026. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

Heads Should Roll Over Civil Defence Website Fiasco 7/17/2026 4:45:00 AM.

Friday, 17 July 2026, 4:31 pm Press Release: Taxpayers'' Union The Taxpayers'' Union says there must be accountability after New Zealand''s Civil Defence website crashed during last night''s Fiordland earthquake and tsunami warning, leaving
...(more)
NEMA sorry after website outage during Fiordland tsunami warning "The .. 7/16/2026 10:19:00 PM.

A tsunami warning was issued and later downgraded to an advisory after the magnitude was revised down, with authorities saying coastal inundation was not expected but dangerous currents and unpredictable surges remained possible from Milfor
...(more)
''Felt like a truck'': Locals describe 5.9 magnitude Southland earthqu.. 7/16/2026 7:43:00 PM.

Evacuations were called for and a tsunami warning was issued, although the evacuations have been cancelled and the warning downgraded to an advisory and then cancelled altogether. "The advisory has been cancelled because no tsunami signals
...(more)
National Warning: Tsunami Threat. Immediate Evacuation Required. 7/16/2026 7:24:00 PM.

Message No: 2. Issued 21:37 16 July 2026. This is a Tsunami Warning for coastal areas following the magnitude 6.3 earthquake near 40 km north of Te Anau. AREAS UNDER THREAT : Land inundation is likely in the following areas. People near the
...(more)

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), WMO (1), USGS (5), (2), INFORM (2),