Earthquake near Bear Creek, 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 51 km (32 mi) from the epicentre. In Bear Creek, 49 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 4.4 on 2022-07-12 — about 45 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.1 25 km WSW of Chenega, Alaska · 14 km SSE of this epicentre Mar 28, 1964
2. 5.8 29 km NW of Chenega, Alaska · 16 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 25, 1937
3. 5.8 33 km ESE of Bear Creek, Alaska · 16 km W of this epicentre Mar 28, 1964
4. 5.7 Southern Alaska · 45 km E of this epicentre Mar 28, 1964
5. 5.7 23 km SSE of Chenega, Alaska · 43 km SE of this epicentre Mar 28, 1964

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 60.1130, -148.5093. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 21 km WNW of Chenega, Alaska 11:00 UTC
2. 1.7 30 km WSW of Chenega, Alaska 08:31 UTC
3. 2.5 24 km WNW of Chenega, Alaska 15:52 UTC
4. 1.5 30 km SE of Whittier, Alaska 22:07 UTC
5. 1.6 36 km SSE of Whittier, Alaska 10:10 UTC
6. 1.5 27 km WNW of Chenega, Alaska 23:06 UTC
7. 2.2 37 km E of Primrose, Alaska 17:29 UTC
8. 1.5 35 km SE of Lowell Point, Alaska 07:09 UTC
9. 1.6 6 km NW of Chenega, Alaska 21:42 UTC
10. 1.9 38 km SSE of Whittier, Alaska 13:04 UTC
11. 1.8 26 km WSW of Chenega, Alaska 13:20 UTC
12. 1.5 34 km SSE of Whittier, Alaska 17:51 UTC
13. 1.7 46 km SW of Chenega, Alaska 20:02 UTC
14. 3.3 21 km NW of Chenega, Alaska 02:08 UTC
15. 1.9 40 km SE of Lowell Point, Alaska 13:28 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:22 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.