174 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska

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 89 km (55 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 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 16,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 22× 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 4.8 on 2021-07-29 — about 22 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 11 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.0 164 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 36 km SW of this epicentre Sep 4, 1989
2. 6.9 143 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska · 37 km NNW of this epicentre Feb 13, 1951
3. 6.9 171 km SW of Akhiok, Alaska · 24 km NNE of this epicentre Feb 6, 1964
4. 6.6 128 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 49 km WNW of this epicentre Jul 28, 1934
5. 6.1 210 km SE of Chignik, Alaska · 42 km SSE of this epicentre Nov 15, 1955

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 55.5176, -155.9773. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.5 160 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 22:33 UTC
2. 2.1 128 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 13:55 UTC
3. 3.4 209 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 04:58 UTC
4. 2.4 168 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 21:34 UTC
5. 2.7 183 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 03:07 UTC
6. 3.0 183 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 02:19 UTC
7. 2.3 160 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 14:09 UTC
8. 2.9 204 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 22:21 UTC
9. 2.4 156 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 09:56 UTC
10. 2.6 167 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 21:28 UTC
11. 2.7 139 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 04:48 UTC
12. 3.1 150 km SW of Akhiok, Alaska 16:53 UTC
13. 2.4 134 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 17:42 UTC
14. 2.5 147 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 17:30 UTC
15. 2.8 179 km SSW of Akhiok, Alaska 07:52 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 11:03 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.