90 km SSW of Adak, 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 8 km (5 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 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 250,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 180,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 16× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.2 about 60 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 6.3 on 2024-12-09 — about 1,400,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 93 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.3 46 km SSW of Adak, Alaska · 44 km NNE of this epicentre Jun 10, 1996
2. 7.1 60 km SW of Adak, Alaska · 38 km N of this epicentre Mar 12, 1957
3. 7.1 75 km S of Adak, Alaska · 31 km ENE of this epicentre Mar 14, 1957
4. 7.0 69 km SW of Adak, Alaska · 31 km NNW of this epicentre May 2, 1971
5. 6.9 61 km SSW of Adak, Alaska · 32 km NE of this epicentre Feb 7, 1971

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 51.1383, -177.1740. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.2 121 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 08:33 UTC
2. 3.1 123 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 08:23 UTC
3. 2.3 131 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 08:02 UTC
4. 2.3 128 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 08:02 UTC
5. 3.5 114 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 07:49 UTC
6. 2.2 101 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 07:39 UTC
7. 4.2 124 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 07:04 UTC
8. 2.5 125 km S of Adak, Alaska 06:59 UTC
9. 2.3 116 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 06:32 UTC
10. 2.5 115 km SW of Adak, Alaska 06:26 UTC
11. 2.7 129 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 06:19 UTC
12. 2.2 105 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 06:15 UTC
13. 3.6 133 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 06:13 UTC
14. 5.1 128 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 05:56 UTC
15. 3.0 122 km SSW of Adak, Alaska 05:51 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 11:42 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.