Earthquake near Sterling, AK

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 18 km (11 mi) from the epicentre. In Sterling, 26 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Funny River.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× more

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 4.4 on 2017-11-17 — about 63 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 24 km ENE of Sterling, Alaska · 3 km SW of this epicentre Oct 3, 1954
2. 6.4 19 km SSE of Tyonek, Alaska · 45 km NW of this epicentre Jul 30, 1941
3. 5.5 26 km SSW of Anchorage, Alaska · 40 km NNE of this epicentre May 24, 1995
4. 5.4 19 km NE of Nikiski, Alaska · 39 km WNW of this epicentre Apr 25, 1994
5. 5.2 19 km E of Point Possession, Alaska · 32 km N of this epicentre Dec 7, 1991

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 60.6699, -150.3617. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.5 8 km WNW of Point Possession, Alaska 05:32 UTC
2. 2.1 2 km WSW of Sterling, Alaska 13:35 UTC
3. 1.7 0 km N of Funny River, Alaska 04:41 UTC
4. 2.9 7 km NW of Point Possession, Alaska 19:41 UTC
5. 1.6 13 km S of Funny River, Alaska 05:58 UTC
6. 2.6 14 km SW of Point Possession, Alaska 05:03 UTC
7. 2.4 12 km WNW of Hope, Alaska 09:25 UTC
8. 2.5 14 km ESE of Point Possession, Alaska 14:52 UTC
9. 1.6 11 km SE of Point Possession, Alaska 13:10 UTC
10. 1.9 13 km SSE of Point Possession, Alaska 15:56 UTC
11. 1.8 30 km NW of Cooper Landing, Alaska 04:29 UTC
12. 1.6 17 km W of Cooper Landing, Alaska 06:52 UTC
13. 1.5 10 km ESE of Point Possession, Alaska 11:32 UTC
14. 1.6 21 km NNE of Sterling, Alaska 00:14 UTC
15. 1.6 20 km ESE of Funny River, Alaska 00:28 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:00 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.