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Earthquakes Near Me / New Mexico

New Mexico Earthquakes: Recent Quakes and the Largest on Record

New Mexico averages 32 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more a year (2016 to 2025), and the largest in the USGS catalog since 1900 is the M5.8 of July 16, 1906, near Socorro, New Mexico.

Live from the USGS

Earthquakes near Albuquerque in the last 30 days

Every quake within 155 miles of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, newest first. For your own address, enter a ZIP code.

Within
Magnitude
Reading the USGS earthquake catalog for magnitude 1.5 and up within 155 miles of Albuquerque.

Live from the USGS earthquake catalog. Times are Mountain time; felt reports and the shaking level come from Did You Feel It? A new quake can take a few minutes to appear and its magnitude can be revised.

New Mexico by the numbers

USGS catalog, read October 10, 2026
32
Quakes of M2.5+ a year
the average, 2016 to 2025
12th
Rank of 50 states
by quakes of M2.5+ a year
M5.8
Largest since 1900
July 16, 1906
48
M3+ in 2026
through October 10, 2026

New Mexico averages 32 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more a year, counting 324 from 2016 to 2025, which ranks it 12th of the fifty states.

Since 1990

New Mexico earthquakes by year

The USGS catalog lists 231 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more in New Mexico from 1990 to 2025, the most in 2025 (25). 2016 to 2025: 104; 2006 to 2015: 59.

Magnitude 3 and up in New Mexico, 1990 to 2025; the tallest bar is 25. From the USGS catalog, read October 10, 2026.
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Since 1900

The 10 largest earthquakes in New Mexico

The largest earthquake in New Mexico in the USGS catalog since 1900 is the M5.8 of July 16, 1906, near Socorro, New Mexico. The most recent of magnitude 4 or more was the M4.0 of August 22, 2026, 8 km SSE of San Mateo, New Mexico.

  1. 1M5.8
  2. 2M5.8
    Near Socorro, New MexicoNovember 15, 1906
  3. 3M5.5
  4. 4M5.1
    4 km NNW of Lumberton, New MexicoJanuary 23, 1966, 6.2 mi (10 km) deep
  5. 5M5.0
    25 km NW of Crownpoint, New MexicoJanuary 5, 1976, 16 mi (25 km) deep
  6. 6M5.0
    20 km S of Weston, ColoradoAugust 10, 2005, 3.1 mi (5 km) deep
  7. 7M4.9
  8. 8M4.8
  9. 9M4.7
  10. 10M4.6

From the USGS ComCat catalog, every magnitude since 1900, read October 10, 2026. Each place links to the quake’s USGS page.

The faults

Fault zones in New Mexico

  • Socorro seismic anomaly
  • San Andres-Organ-East Franklin Mountains fault system
  • Rio Grande rift
“Several of these could pose a risk to urban areas, such as the Hubbell Springs and Rincon faults near Albuquerque and the San Andres-Organ-East Franklin Mountains fault system near Las Cruces and El Paso.”

Named by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, read October 9, 2026.

When it shakes

What to do in an earthquake

  1. 1

    Drop

    Drop where you are onto hands and knees.

  2. 2

    Cover

    Cover your head and neck with one arm and hand. If a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl underneath it for shelter. If no shelter is nearby, crawl next to an interior wall (away from windows). Stay on your knees; bend over to protect vital organs.

  3. 3

    Hold On

    Hold until the shaking stops. If under shelter, hold on with one hand and be ready to move with it when the shelter moves. If not under shelter, hold on to your head and neck with both arms and hands.

Ready.gov’s words, from Ready.gov: Earthquakes (updated Sep 9, 2026, read October 9, 2026). Practice it with The Great ShakeOut: Earthquake Drills.

A seismograph drum wrapped in paper with rows of ink traces, the pen drawing a new line as the drum turns
A seismogram being recorded by a seismograph at the Weston Observatory in Massachusetts. “Seismogram at Weston Observatory” by Z22, CC BY-SA 3.0
Questions

New Mexico earthquake questions

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Sources. The live list: the USGS FDSN event service. New Mexico’s counts and largest quakes: the USGS ComCat catalog, read October 10, 2026, counted inside the state’s Census boundary and within 150 km of its coast where USGS names the state. Albuquerque: the state’s most populous city in the Census Vintage 2024 estimates. Older years hold fewer small quakes because fewer instruments were listening.

Hero photograph: the San Andreas Fault across the Carrizo Plain. “Kluft-photo-Carrizo-Plain-Nov-2007-Img 0327” by Ikluft, CC BY-SA 4.0