Earthquake near Eagle River, AK

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 48 km (30 mi) from the epicentre. In Eagle River, 15 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: Eagle River 15 km, intensity II · Anchorage 31 km, intensity II · Knik-Fairview 32 km, intensity II · Girdwood 35 km, intensity II · Butte 36 km, intensity II · Palmer 40 km, intensity II · Tanaina 42 km, intensity II · Big Lake 45 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× 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 4.7 on 2018-12-09 — about 89 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 12 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.0 21 km N of Whittier, Alaska · 46 km SE of this epicentre Sep 14, 1932
2. 5.7 13 km S of Girdwood, Alaska · 49 km S of this epicentre Feb 19, 1928
3. 5.5 2 km ENE of Eagle River, Alaska · 14 km NW of this epicentre May 11, 1965
4. 5.3 8 km NW of Knik-Fairview, Alaska · 40 km NNW of this epicentre May 6, 1997
5. 5.3 13 km ESE of Eagle River, Alaska · 4 km N of this epicentre Jul 22, 1999

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 61.2525, -149.3236. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 Southern Alaska 08:26 UTC
2. 1.6 4 km SSW of Houston, Alaska 06:24 UTC
3. 1.6 5 km SSW of Houston, Alaska 09:05 UTC
4. 1.9 1 km ENE of Houston, Alaska 07:44 UTC
5. 1.8 12 km NE of Girdwood, Alaska 05:58 UTC
6. 1.6 Southern Alaska 00:33 UTC
7. 2.3 9 km SE of Girdwood, Alaska 08:58 UTC
8. 2.0 4 km S of Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska 01:03 UTC
9. 1.7 4 km WNW of Meadow Lakes, Alaska 14:41 UTC
10. 1.5 6 km ESE of Point MacKenzie, Alaska 02:40 UTC
11. 1.9 14 km NE of Girdwood, Alaska 16:44 UTC
12. 1.5 7 km ENE of Hope, Alaska 20:51 UTC
13. 1.6 7 km SW of Knik, Alaska 15:32 UTC
14. 2.2 2 km SSW of Houston, Alaska 01:38 UTC
15. 2.7 0 km NW of Meadow Lakes, Alaska 11:33 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:43 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.