Significant earthquake of magnitude 5.6 just reported 139 km southwest of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 occurred in the afternoon on Saturday, February 28th, 2026, at 4:23 pm local time near Kokopo, Kokopo District, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, as reported by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
According to preliminary data, the quake was located at a shallow depth of 10. km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. 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.
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 Kokopo (pop. 26,300) located 139 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.

Earthquake data:
Date & time: Feb 28, 2026 06:23 am (Universal Time) local time (28 Feb 2026 06:23 GMT)
Magnitude: 5.6
Depth: 10.00 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 5.49°S / 151.89°E (Papua New Guinea)
Primary data source: GFZ
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