131 km SE of Chignik, 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 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 2021-07-29 — about 500,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 12 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.0 113 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 41 km N of this epicentre May 4, 1923
2. 7.0 164 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 33 km ESE of this epicentre Sep 4, 1989
3. 6.7 121 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 18 km W of this epicentre Feb 13, 1979
4. 6.6 128 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 19 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 28, 1934
5. 6.0 168 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 36 km SE of this epicentre Nov 16, 1938

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 55.4781, -156.8776. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.4 126 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 05:09 UTC
2. 3.3 156 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 22:00 UTC
3. 2.4 134 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 17:58 UTC
4. 4.0 135 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 09:54 UTC
5. 2.4 129 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 05:46 UTC
6. 2.8 139 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 03:22 UTC
7. 2.5 128 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 18:21 UTC
8. 2.3 159 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 15:30 UTC
9. 2.6 158 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 12:45 UTC
10. 2.1 113 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 04:53 UTC
11. 3.3 159 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 08:59 UTC
12. 3.7 156 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 06:04 UTC
13. 3.3 152 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 14:50 UTC
14. 2.3 120 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 03:22 UTC
15. 2.4 146 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 11:31 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:56 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.