88 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 7 km (4 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log₁₀E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.5 on 2016-03-23 — about 7,900 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 25 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.5 47 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 47 km N of this epicentre Feb 26, 1929
2. 6.5 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 15 km ENE of this epicentre Jun 21, 1987
3. 5.8 112 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 30 km ESE of this epicentre Feb 24, 1939
4. 5.8 60 km SSW of King Cove, Alaska · 46 km NNE of this epicentre May 6, 1956
5. 5.7 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 17 km ENE of this epicentre Apr 26, 1965

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 54.1447, -162.8069. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

59 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

1. 3.9 109 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 20:25 UTC
2. 2.9 49 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 20:10 UTC
3. 2.6 99 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 19:44 UTC
4. 2.1 98 km S of False Pass, Alaska 01:53 UTC
5. 2.3 41 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 03:20 UTC
6. 3.7 99 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 03:55 UTC
7. 1.9 60 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 13:42 UTC
8. 2.7 92 km S of King Cove, Alaska 12:23 UTC
9. 2.3 105 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:27 UTC
10. 2.1 49 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 15:10 UTC
11. 2.2 65 km S of King Cove, Alaska 07:19 UTC
12. 3.3 105 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 04:58 UTC
13. 2.8 96 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 08:47 UTC
14. 2.7 101 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 11:23 UTC
15. 3.8 104 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 09:43 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:40 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.