M4.1 Earthquake near Tofino, Canada — 11 November 2026

Light earthquakes are widely felt near the epicentre and can rattle windows, dishes and hanging objects. Damage is uncommon and usually limited to cracked plaster or fallen loose items.

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake radiates roughly 21 tons of TNT equivalent in seismic energy.

The USGS assigns this earthquake a significance score of 259, which is below the USGS threshold of more than 600 for its significant-earthquake list. The ranking combines magnitude with available Did You Feel It responses and PAGER alert level; it is not a direct measurement of damage.

That is about 17:14 local solar time at the epicentre, during the afternoon.

This event was deeper than 69% of the 526 earthquakes recorded in Canada in our catalogue and stronger than 94% of them.

The epicentre was located at 49.0990, -127.7870 — 137 km west of Tofino. The closest other recorded event was a magnitude 3.0 earthquake 141 km south-southwest of here on 29 January 2025.

The nearest other settlements in our records are Port McNeill (94 km west), Ucluelet (145 km east) and Tofino (186 km south-southwest).

At 8 km this was a shallow earthquake. Shallow events release their energy close to the surface, so for a given magnitude they produce noticeably stronger shaking — and more damage — than deeper ones. Roughly three quarters of all earthquakes worldwide occur at shallow depths.

This catalogue does not ingest eyewitness responses, so it cannot confirm where this earthquake was felt. Based on magnitude alone, an event this size is often felt across the surrounding area. Its shallow focus makes stronger surface shaking more likely than for a deeper event of the same magnitude.

The USGS event record links to NOAA tsunami information because this was a large event in an oceanic region. That link flag does not mean a tsunami occurred or that a warning is active. Check tsunami.gov and instructions from your local authority for the current status of your coastline.

No further earthquakes have been recorded within about 150 km of the epicentre since this event was recorded.

8 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or above have been logged within roughly 200 km of this epicentre in our catalogue. The strongest was a magnitude 5.6 event near Port McNeill on 20 July 2026. This M4.1 event released about 178 times less energy than that event.

No other earthquakes have been recorded within 100 km of this epicentre in the past year, which makes this a genuinely isolated event.

This earthquake is part of the November 2026 worldwide record, and of earthquakes in Canada during November 2026. Browse the full monthly archive to compare periods.