110 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 480 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 32,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 480 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 6.9 on 2021-10-11 — about 1,400,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.0 113 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 46 km S of this epicentre May 4, 1923
2. 6.8 117 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska · 40 km NNE of this epicentre May 29, 2015
3. 6.4 77 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 37 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 24, 1972
4. 6.4 104 km SSE of Ugashik, Alaska · 45 km N of this epicentre May 20, 1979
5. 6.3 112 km E of Chignik, Alaska · 7 km S of this epicentre Feb 25, 1953

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 56.2499, -156.6295. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.5 128 km E of Chignik, Alaska 10:13 UTC
2. 2.1 109 km E of Chignik, Alaska 23:42 UTC
3. 2.4 122 km E of Chignik, Alaska 08:11 UTC
4. 1.8 112 km E of Chignik, Alaska 06:28 UTC
5. 2.2 103 km E of Chignik, Alaska 13:20 UTC
6. 1.9 109 km E of Chignik, Alaska 10:48 UTC
7. 2.5 80 km E of Chignik, Alaska 15:11 UTC
8. 2.6 120 km E of Chignik, Alaska 06:21 UTC
9. 2.2 Alaska Peninsula 07:48 UTC
10. 2.3 113 km E of Chignik, Alaska 19:41 UTC
11. 2.2 112 km E of Chignik, Alaska 13:25 UTC
12. 1.9 116 km E of Chignik, Alaska 17:48 UTC
13. 1.7 136 km E of Chignik, Alaska 06:54 UTC
14. 1.8 118 km E of Chignik, Alaska 05:04 UTC
15. 2.3 116 km E of Chignik, Alaska 22:46 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:47 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.