129 km E of Chignik, Alaska

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes 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 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 2017-03-28 — about 250 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 14 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 117 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska · 29 km NNW of this epicentre May 29, 2015
2. 6.4 104 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska · 43 km NW of this epicentre May 20, 1979
3. 6.3 112 km E of Chignik, Alaska · 25 km SW of this epicentre Feb 25, 1953
4. 6.1 132 km E of Chignik, Alaska · 16 km S of this epicentre Sep 13, 1911
5. 6.1 118 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 49 km SSW of this epicentre Mar 16, 1940

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 56.3395, -156.3094. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.8 104 km WSW of Akhiok, Alaska 23:57 UTC
2. 3.4 105 km ENE of Chignik, Alaska 22:10 UTC
3. 2.6 132 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 02:46 UTC
4. 2.4 139 km E of Chignik, Alaska 19:45 UTC
5. 2.7 114 km E of Chignik, Alaska 12:00 UTC
6. 2.6 114 km E of Chignik, Alaska 06:52 UTC
7. 2.7 101 km SE of Ugashik, Alaska 01:25 UTC
8. 2.4 106 km E of Chignik, Alaska 11:28 UTC
9. 3.1 116 km ENE of Chignik, Alaska 16:28 UTC
10. 2.3 112 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska 08:53 UTC
11. 2.4 123 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska 07:28 UTC
12. 2.4 137 km E of Chignik, Alaska 16:55 UTC
13. 2.0 134 km E of Chignik, Alaska 08:24 UTC
14. 2.8 Alaska Peninsula 01:20 UTC
15. 2.5 126 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska 00:26 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 02:35 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.