119 km SSE of Sand Point, 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 8 km (5 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 7.6 on 2020-10-19 — about 250,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.1 79 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 48 km N of this epicentre Nov 14, 1985
2. 6.0 71 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska · 49 km N of this epicentre Jun 27, 1918
3. 5.9 99 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 41 km NNE of this epicentre Oct 20, 1929
4. 5.9 131 km S of Sand Point, Alaska · 39 km WSW of this epicentre Dec 3, 1933
5. 5.4 75 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska · 50 km N of this epicentre Mar 25, 1988

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 54.3303, -159.8733. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.7 149 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 12:40 UTC
2. 2.4 138 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 17:10 UTC
3. 2.1 124 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 16:58 UTC
4. 1.6 88 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 02:25 UTC
5. 1.6 89 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 13:47 UTC
6. 2.2 115 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 18:10 UTC
7. 2.0 102 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 09:21 UTC
8. 2.2 88 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 20:25 UTC
9. 2.6 131 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 04:43 UTC
10. 1.9 94 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 02:14 UTC
11. 2.0 133 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 01:18 UTC
12. 2.2 105 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 06:49 UTC
13. 1.6 104 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 14:39 UTC
14. 1.9 122 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 23:45 UTC
15. 2.1 93 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 02:28 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:15 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.