Significant M5.0 AFTERSHOCK hit in the North Pacific Ocean near Mutsu (Japan) on Tuesday Evening.

Written by Earthquakelist.org on December 9th, 2025. Last updated January 7th, 2026.

A significant M5.0 aftershock struck in the North Pacific Ocean 89 kilometer from Mutsu, Japan in the evening of Tuesday December 9th, 2025.

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Earthquake Summary

This earthquake hit under water in the North Pacific Ocean, 92 kilometers (57 mi) off the coast of Japan, 89 kilometer east of Mutsu in Aomori. The center of this earthquake had a quite shallow depth of 60 km. Shallow earthquakes usually have a larger impact than earthquakes deep in the earth.

Date and Time:	Dec 9, 2025 18:09 (Tokyo Time) - Dec 9, 2025 09:09 Universal Time.
Location:	89 km east of Mutsu, Aomori, Japan. Coordinates 41°18'46"N 142°17'9"E.
Map:	Map of area around epicenter. Click to open in Google Maps.
Magnitude:	MAG 5.0 Detected by 16 stations. Maximum Error Range ±0.078 .
Depth:	60 km (37 mi) A quite shallow depth.
Tsunami Risk:	Low tsunami risk Earthquakes under MAG-6.5 do not usually cause tsunami's. Always stay cautious - More info here.

Nearby towns and cities

This earthquake may have been felt in Japan . Mutsu in Aomori, Japan is the nearest significant place from the epicenter. The earthquake occurred 89 kilometer (55 mi) east of Mutsu.

Multiple large cities are in proximity of today's earthquake. Sapporo is located 210 km to the north-northwest. Hachinohe is located 112 km to the southwest. Aomori is located 141 km to the west-southwest.

A complete list of nearby places is included below.

Overview of nearby places

This is likely an aftershock

This earthquake was an aftershock. A larger mag. 7.6 earthquake struck 36 km (23 mi) south-southwest in advance of this 5.0 earthquake around 19 hrs earlier.

Overview of foreshocks and aftershocks

More earthquakes coming?

The risk of aftershocks decreases rapidly over time. Usually, aftershocks are at least one order of magnitude lower than a main shock.

It's always adviced to be cautious of the risk of a larger shock following any significant earthquake, however this risk is fairly small. There is a roughly 94 percent change that no larger main shock will follow in the days following this earthquake.

Earthquakes like this happen often in the region

Earthquakes of this strength are very common in the region. In total, 187 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher have been registered within 300km (186 mi) of this epicenter in the past 10 years. This comes down to an average of once every 20 days.

Low tsunami risk

Based on early data it appears this earthquake was not strong enough (lower than MAG-6.5) to be likely to cause destructive tsunami's. However this earthquake appeared to have hit at a shallow depth under sea, so stay cautious and monitor advice from local authorities.

Tsunami Risk Factors

Sources

Last updated 07/01/26 12:48 (). This article contains currently available information about the earthquake and is automatically composed. We continue to update this article up to a few days after the earthquake occurred.

1. US Geographic Society (USGS): Earthquake us6000rtld
2. European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC): Earthquake 20251209_0000129
3. Geonames.org: World Cities Database
4. Google Maps: Static API
5. Earthquakelist.org: Historic Earthquakes Database

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