QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

16 km S of South Van Horn, Alaska

· 18 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Fairbanks North Star Borough 60 km
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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
18 km below the surface
Felt
22 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Fairbanks North Star Borough, 60 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1545 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 22 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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.

Where

Epicentre 64.6632, -147.7477. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK 60 km (37 mi) W of here earthquakes near Fairbanks North Star Borough
Denali Borough, AK 155 km (96 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Denali Borough

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 11 km E of Fox, Alaska
  2. 1.5 47 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska
  3. 2.1 44 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska
  4. 1.6 45 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska
  5. 4.4 44 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska
  6. 1.6 19 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  7. 1.9 28 km SW of Salcha, Alaska
  8. 2.7 7 km SW of South Van Horn, Alaska
  9. 1.6 11 km E of Fox, Alaska
  10. 2.6 20 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  11. 1.7 27 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  12. 1.6 27 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  13. 1.6 28 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  14. 1.5 26 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska
  15. 3.1 Central 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.1 on 2021-11-05 — it released about 63 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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