Magnitude 5.7 earthquake — Scotia Sea

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Scotia Sea on 22 August 2026 at 07:40 UTC, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake was centred at approximately 60.26°S, 47.26°W, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres, and was recorded by the USGS as event us6000tmrn with a moment magnitude (Mww) of 5.7, matching the initial body-wave magnitude (mb) reading. The Scotia Sea is a remote stretch of the South Atlantic lying between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica, bounded by island arcs including the South Orkney Islands and South Sandwich Islands, and sits astride the boundary of the small, highly active Scotia tectonic plate, making moderate earthquakes in the area unsurprising though rarely felt or reported by the public given the extreme isolation of the region.

USGS assigned the event a green PAGER alert, its lowest impact classification, indicating no expected casualties or significant damage, and confirmed that no tsunami was generated as a result of the earthquake. Shake intensity models estimated a maximum Modified Mercalli Intensity of around 3.6, corresponding to light shaking, though this would have been felt by few if any people given the absence of settlements near the epicentre; no felt reports had been submitted to USGS at the time of writing. The agency's monitoring network, drawing on data from 55 seismic stations, produced a confirmed moment tensor solution and rupture model, and the event has been formally reviewed and verified by USGS seismologists. As with most seismic activity in this part of the Southern Ocean, the earthquake attracted little wider media attention owing to the absence of nearby population centres or infrastructure at risk.