Shallow M5.1 AFTERSHOCK struck on Wednesday Afternoon in the Sulawesi Sea near Malingao (The Philippines).

Written by Earthquakelist.org on January 28th, 2026. Last updated January 29th, 2026.

A shallow and significant M5.1 aftershock struck in the Sulawesi Sea 88 kilometer from Malingao, The Philippines in the late afternoon of Wednesday January 28th, 2026. The earthquake struck near a very densely populated region.

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Earthquake Summary

This earthquake hit under water in the Sulawesi Sea, right off the coast of The Philippines (2 mi offshore), 88 kilometer southwest of Malingao in Soccsksargen. The center of this earthquake had a very shallow depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes usually have a larger impact than earthquakes deep in the earth.

Date and Time:	Jan 28, 2026 04:43PM (Manila Time) - Jan 28, 2026 08:43 Universal Time.
Location:	88 km SW of Malingao, Soccsksargen, The Philippines. Coordinates 6°31'4"N 124°0'38"E.
Map:	Map of area around epicenter. Click to open in Google Maps.
Magnitude:	MAG 5.1 Detected by 38 stations. Maximum Error Range ±0.092 .
Depth:	10 km (6 mi) A very 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 The Philippines . Laguilayan in Soccsksargen, The Philippines is the nearest significant place from the epicenter. The earthquake occurred 59 kilometer (37 mi) west-southwest of Laguilayan.

Multiple large cities are in proximity of today's earthquake. Budta is located 90 km to the north-northeast. Malingao is located 88 km to the north-east. Davao is located 187 km to the east-northeast.

A complete list of nearby places is included below.

Overview of nearby places

Shaking reported by 2 people

People that feel an earthquake may report their experience to the US Geographic Survey. Currently, 2 people have reported shaking in 2 places in Philippines.We keep updating this article as more ground reports become available. You may report that you felt this earthquake here.

Places with most reports:

• Buayan, Southern Mindanao, Philippines: 1 person.
• Tacurong, Central Mindanao, Philippines: 1 person.

This is likely an aftershock

Approximately 2 hrs before this earthquake hit, a larger 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck 27 km (17 mi) west-southwest of this one. For that reason, we classify the Mag. 5.1 earthquake as an aftershock.

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, 112 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.1 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 month.

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 29/01/26 06:28 (). This article is automatically generated based on available data. We keep checking multiple sources for additional information. This article gets updated as new details on this earthquake become available.

1. US Geographic Society (USGS): Earthquake us6000s4yq
2. European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC): Earthquake 20260128_0000148
3. Geonames.org: World Cities Database
4. Google Maps: Static API
5. Earthquakelist.org: Historic Earthquakes Database

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