95 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 7 km (4 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 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 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 350,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 19 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.4 54 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 46 km N of this epicentre May 31, 1917
2. 6.6 72 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 40 km NNE of this epicentre Oct 16, 1932
3. 6.6 85 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 23 km NNE of this epicentre Oct 9, 1985
4. 6.3 68 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 44 km NNE of this epicentre Oct 30, 1932
5. 6.1 79 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 19 km N of this epicentre Nov 14, 1985

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 54.5855, -159.7758. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.6 114 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 08:41 UTC
2. 2.2 123 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 08:24 UTC
3. 2.0 120 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 00:04 UTC
4. 2.1 109 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 20:11 UTC
5. 2.1 103 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 05:30 UTC
6. 1.9 110 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 16:19 UTC
7. 2.0 123 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 15:49 UTC
8. 1.9 96 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 13:35 UTC
9. 2.0 98 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 19:38 UTC
10. 2.9 123 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 17:00 UTC
11. 3.0 113 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 14:10 UTC
12. 2.4 100 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 21:36 UTC
13. 2.1 105 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 06:05 UTC
14. 3.1 133 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 04:48 UTC
15. 2.3 123 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska 03:11 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:45 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.