237 km WSW of Adak, 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 17 km (11 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 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 6.1 on 2020-01-26 — about 350,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 126 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.2 238 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 23 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 22, 1905
2. 7.2 207 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 47 km NNE of this epicentre Dec 19, 2007
3. 6.9 203 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 48 km NNE of this epicentre Mar 31, 1913
4. 6.9 231 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 39 km NNW of this epicentre May 14, 1969
5. 6.8 235 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 37 km NNW of this epicentre May 6, 1987

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 50.9586, -179.7163. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska 19:26 UTC
2. 3.0 242 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 00:41 UTC
3. 2.7 243 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 06:43 UTC
4. 2.0 231 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 09:32 UTC
5. 2.8 205 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 08:54 UTC
6. 3.6 240 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 05:11 UTC
7. 3.2 250 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 02:28 UTC
8. 4.1 193 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 18:29 UTC
9. 3.5 210 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 11:36 UTC
10. 2.6 247 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 11:22 UTC
11. 3.1 245 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 02:09 UTC
12. 3.2 241 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 06:01 UTC
13. 2.3 241 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 15:39 UTC
14. 4.0 231 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 22:51 UTC
15. 4.0 236 km WSW of Adak, Alaska 13:20 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 09:29 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.