41 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 112 km (70 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 30 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 5,600× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 250× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 180× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.2 about 30 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 63× 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 5.4 on 2017-05-11 — about 63 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 30 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 47 km S of Old Harbor, Alaska · 19 km WSW of this epicentre Jan 10, 2001
2. 6.6 88 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska · 48 km SSE of this epicentre Dec 21, 1917
3. 6.5 85 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska · 46 km S of this epicentre Mar 30, 1964
4. 6.2 19 km SW of Old Harbor, Alaska · 40 km NW of this epicentre Dec 9, 1938
5. 6.2 53 km ESE of Old Harbor, Alaska · 39 km ENE 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 56.8650, -153.0245. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.2 31 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 00:27 UTC
2. 2.4 53 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 03:31 UTC
3. 1.9 30 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 03:15 UTC
4. 2.1 53 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 09:51 UTC
5. 2.4 35 km ESE of Old Harbor, Alaska 00:00 UTC
6. 2.1 58 km SE of Old Harbor, Alaska 13:28 UTC
7. 1.9 26 km SW of Old Harbor, Alaska 09:11 UTC
8. 1.8 37 km E of Old Harbor, Alaska 09:48 UTC
9. 1.9 30 km SE of Old Harbor, Alaska 16:55 UTC
10. 1.8 11 km SE of Old Harbor, Alaska 20:23 UTC
11. 2.5 35 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 18:45 UTC
12. 4.2 8 km NNE of Old Harbor, Alaska 07:12 UTC
13. 2.0 35 km SE of Old Harbor, Alaska 19:04 UTC
14. 2.1 26 km S of Old Harbor, Alaska 16:30 UTC
15. 3.4 51 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska 00:03 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:24 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.