143 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 it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 89,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 7.9× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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 5.9 on 2016-10-27 — about 180,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 36 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 8.6 The 1946 Unimak Island, Alaska Earthquake · 13 km SSE of this epicentre Apr 1, 1946
2. 6.2 172 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska · 29 km S of this epicentre Apr 2, 1946
3. 6.1 166 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 30 km SSW of this epicentre Oct 14, 1929
4. 6.0 155 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 41 km WSW of this epicentre Apr 3, 1946
5. 6.0 129 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 36 km WNW of this epicentre Jan 14, 1961

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 53.6000, -162.8925. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.3 105 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:27 UTC
2. 2.8 161 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:00 UTC
3. 3.3 105 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 04:58 UTC
4. 2.6 163 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 09:13 UTC
5. 2.8 96 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 08:47 UTC
6. 2.8 south of Alaska 08:38 UTC
7. 2.7 101 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 11:23 UTC
8. 3.8 104 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 09:43 UTC
9. 4.1 152 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 12:28 UTC
10. 2.5 108 km S of False Pass, Alaska 06:02 UTC
11. 2.5 110 km S of False Pass, Alaska 21:18 UTC
12. 2.2 108 km S of False Pass, Alaska 04:23 UTC
13. 3.6 104 km S of False Pass, Alaska 03:57 UTC
14. 3.6 117 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 07:38 UTC
15. 2.5 145 km S of False Pass, Alaska 22:33 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:39 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.