261 km SSE of False Pass, 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 13 km (8 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 30 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 32× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 30 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 5.0 on 2016-10-01 — about 32,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.9 228 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 47 km NW of this epicentre Oct 13, 1972
2. 5.3 223 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 43 km NW of this epicentre Mar 12, 2015
3. 5.0 240 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska · 34 km NE of this epicentre Mar 15, 1982

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 52.5704, -162.4946. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.2 240 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 12:58 UTC
2. 5.0 244 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 21:06 UTC
3. 2.9 295 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 13:55 UTC
4. 3.0 269 km S of False Pass, Alaska 03:34 UTC
5. 2.5 221 km S of False Pass, Alaska 14:10 UTC
6. 2.7 288 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 05:54 UTC
7. 2.9 233 km S of False Pass, Alaska 03:34 UTC
8. 3.1 236 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 06:26 UTC
9. 2.8 232 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 13:56 UTC
10. 2.8 263 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 00:31 UTC
11. 2.7 230 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 06:52 UTC
12. 3.1 265 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 23:00 UTC
13. 2.6 224 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 21:27 UTC
14. 3.3 242 km S of False Pass, Alaska 17:22 UTC
15. 2.7 250 km S of False Pass, Alaska 03:02 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 15:54 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.