QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4ml

171 km SE of Chignik, Alaska

Yes. A magnitude 3.4 earthquake was recorded 171 km SE of Chignik, Alaska at 21:29 UTC on 2021-08-03, 15 km deep.

· 15 km deep · released about 1.9 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 3.4 (ml)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1857 days ago

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 56 km (35 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 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× 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 5.5 on 2021-07-30 — about 1,400 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. 7.0 164 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 25 km NNE of this epicentre
  2. 6.7 121 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 50 km NW of this epicentre
  3. 6.2 189 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 20 km SSE of this epicentre
  4. 6.0 168 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 16 km NE of this epicentre
  5. 5.6 171 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 2 km NE of this epicentre

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 55.1289, -156.6185. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.4 156 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska
  2. 2.5 138 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  3. 2.4 south of Alaska
  4. 3.2 199 km SE of Perryville, Alaska
  5. 2.4 194 km SE of Perryville, Alaska
  6. 3.3 203 km SE of Perryville, Alaska
  7. 2.7 129 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  8. 2.7 197 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  9. 3.3 144 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska
  10. 2.6 190 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  11. 2.3 177 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  12. 3.4 163 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  13. 3.0 154 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  14. 2.4 162 km SE of Chignik, Alaska
  15. 3.3 193 km SE of Perryville, Alaska

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.