FirstAlerts

Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake Shakes Big Island Near Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck 10 miles south-southeast of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo on August 17, 2026, according to the USGS.

3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 21, 2026, 11:25 a.m. ET

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 21, 2026, 11:36 a.m. ET
A magnitude 4.1 occurred at 9:24 a.m. HST on August 17, 2026, , according to the USGS via Big Island Now. The quake was recorded at a depth of . The USGS reported 93 felt reports. The estimated impact level was assessed as , indicating a low likelihood of damage, according to Big Island Now.

Earlier reports

  1. Aug 21, 2026, 11:31 a.m. ET

    Estimated Impact Level for Big Island Earthquake Assessed as Green

    The estimated impact level for the magnitude 4.1 earthquake that struck 10 miles south-southeast of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo on August 17, 2026, has been assessed as green, according to Big Island Now. The assessment, reported by Big Island Now, indicates a low estimated impact.

    The earthquake occurred at 9:24 a.m. local time at a depth of 14 miles below sea level, as reported by Big Island Now. The agency received 93 felt reports, according to the same source.

  2. Aug 21, 2026, 11:25 a.m. ETFirst report

    Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake Shakes Big Island Near Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo

    A magnitude 4.1 earthquake occurred at 9:24 a.m. HST on August 17, 2026, approximately 10 miles south-southeast of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo, according to Big Island Now. The quake was centered 14 miles below sea level.

    Big Island Now reported that 93 people felt the earthquake. The estimated impact level was green, indicating a low likelihood of damage or casualties.

    The event is still developing, and further information may be released as it becomes available.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 121 Aug 2026, 15:31current

    First published.

  2. Version 121 Aug 2026, 15:25current

    First published.

  3. Version 121 Aug 2026, 15:36current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.