Tuesday, May 5, 2026 08:10 | 23 mins ago | By: EarthquakeMonitor
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake near Te Kaha, Opotiki District, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, was reported only 8 minutes ago by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), considered one of the key international agencies that monitor seismic activity worldwide. The earthquake occurred at a moderately shallow depth of 35. km beneath the epicenter in the evening on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, at 8:00 pm local time. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake which listed the quake at magnitude 5.3 as well. Other agencies reporting the same quake include the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) at magnitude 5.3, and New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission and Geological Survey (GeoNet) at magnitude 5.5.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Te Kaha (pop. 390) located 114 km from the epicenter.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.
If you felt it, report it through our site or app right now!
Earthquake data:
I felt this quake
Date & time: May 5, 2026 08:00 pm (GMT +12) local time (5 May 2026 08:00 GMT)
Magnitude: 5.3
Depth: 35.00 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 36.72°S / 177.54°E 
(New Zealand)
Primary data source: EMSC