Papua New Guinea

Brief · 19 September 2026

This is the most recent brief; none has been generated since 19 September 2026. The event list below is current.

Papua New Guinea recorded a cluster of six moderate earthquakes over the past week, ranging from magnitude 4.5 to 5.2 and depths of 10 to 120 km, with exposure estimates reaching over one million people for one event near Mount Hagen. Wildfire activity also continued across several parts of the country, with multiple fires reported by satellite data. A large-scale regional drought spanning Australia and Southeast Asia, including Papua New Guinea, remains ongoing.

Earthquake Six earthquakes struck Papua New Guinea in the past week, the largest an M5.2 event at 120 km depth exposing an estimated 554,403 people. A separate M4.5 quake 97 km north-northeast of Mount Hagen exposed an estimated 1,071,107 people, while smaller events were recorded near Panguna and Madang.

Wildfire Several wildfires were active in Papua New Guinea, including one producing a total fire radiative power of 2,770 MW and another, described as forest fires, that has burned 7,272 hectares. A newly detected fire covering 5,214 hectares was reported on 19 September.

Drought A drought affecting Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam remains ongoing, covering an area of over 1.6 million square kilometers according to GDO data.

Summarised from Hazardly's tracked events for the seven days to 19 September 2026 · no external sources. Generated by claude-sonnet-5 at 19 Sept, 20:42 UTC, not reviewed by a person before publication. Outbreak lines name the disease and country only; WHO's bulletin text is on each outbreak's event page.