Moderate yet deep magnitude 5.5 earthquake 112 km northwest of Finschhafen, Papua New Guinea

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported a magnitude 5.5 quake in Papua New Guinea near Finschhafen, Morobe Province, only 9 minutes ago. The earthquake hit in the morning on Monday, January 5th, 2026, at 10:42 am local time at an intermediate to considerable depth of 172. 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 5.5 as well. A third agency, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), reported the same quake 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 Finschhafen (pop. 1,100) located 112 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: Jan 5, 2026 10:42 am (Port Moresby time) local time (5 Jan 2026 00:42 GMT)
Magnitude: 5.5
Depth: 172.00 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 5.62°S / 147.63°E (Papua New Guinea)
Primary data source: EMSC
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake/news/291099/Moderate-yet-deep-magnitude-55-earthquake-112-km-northwest-of-Finschhafen-Papua-New-Guinea.html