Moderate earthquake of magnitude 4.7 just reported 11 km east of Chikusei, Japan

An intermediate magnitude 4.7 earthquake was reported early morning near Chikusei, Chikusei Shi, Ibaraki, Japan.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the quake hit on Friday, May 8th, 2026, at 3:50 am local time at an intermediate depth of 70. km. 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 4.7 as well. Other agencies reporting the same quake include the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) at magnitude 4.7, and Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) at magnitude 4.6.
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 Iwase (pop. 39,100) located 6 km from the epicenter, Shimodate (pop. 63,700) 10 km away, Chikusei (pop. 100,800) 11 km away, Tsukuba (pop. 175,600) 11 km away, Kasama (pop. 73,700) 18 km away, Tsukuba (pop. 241,700) 24 km away, Tsuchiura (pop. 144,400) 25 km away, and Mito (pop. 270,700) 32 km away.
Other towns or cities near the epicenter where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include Tokyo (pop. 9,733,300) located 77 km from the epicenter, and Yokohama (pop. 3,777,500) 105 km away.
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: May 8, 2026 03:50 am (GMT +9) local time (7 May 2026 18:50 GMT)
Magnitude: 4.7
Depth: 70.00 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 36.3°N / 140.1°E (Sakuragawa Shi, Ibaraki, Japan)
Primary data source: EMSC
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