119 km SE of Chignik, Alaska

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 130 km (81 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 60 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2,800× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 89× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.4 about 60 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 130× 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 6.9 on 2021-08-14 — about 5,600 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 13 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.0 113 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 45 km NNE of this epicentre May 4, 1923
2. 7.0 164 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 49 km ESE of this epicentre Sep 4, 1989
3. 6.9 105 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska · 39 km WSW of this epicentre Nov 17, 1938
4. 6.7 121 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 5 km SSW of this epicentre Feb 13, 1979
5. 6.6 128 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 30 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 28, 1934

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 55.4949, -157.1381. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.1 116 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 14:23 UTC
2. 2.6 118 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 23:53 UTC
3. 2.7 164 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 12:39 UTC
4. 1.9 73 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 15:43 UTC
5. 2.9 131 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 11:41 UTC
6. 3.8 138 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 22:51 UTC
7. 2.4 116 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 02:08 UTC
8. 3.2 152 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 22:11 UTC
9. 2.7 130 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 12:29 UTC
10. 3.1 157 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 08:09 UTC
11. 2.6 118 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 10:26 UTC
12. 2.6 165 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 04:48 UTC
13. 1.9 125 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 20:36 UTC
14. 2.2 142 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 06:29 UTC
15. 2.2 112 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 20:36 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:21 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.