59 km SSE of Chignik, 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 137 km (85 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 120 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,400× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.6 about 120 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 250× 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 8.2 on 2021-07-29 — about 250,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 105 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska · 50 km SE of this epicentre Nov 17, 1938
2. 6.2 74 km SE of Perryville, Alaska · 46 km SSW of this epicentre Aug 6, 1927
3. 6.0 98 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska · 44 km SSE of this epicentre Jan 2, 1985
4. 5.8 46 km S of Chignik, Alaska · 15 km NW of this epicentre Feb 21, 1972
5. 5.5 51 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska · 9 km N of this epicentre Feb 24, 1972

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 55.7704, -158.1914. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.2 62 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 13:31 UTC
2. 1.7 39 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 21:14 UTC
3. 2.1 56 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 21:45 UTC
4. 2.1 95 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska 00:23 UTC
5. 2.3 20 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 23:13 UTC
6. 1.8 37 km ESE of Chignik, Alaska 13:50 UTC
7. 1.9 53 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska 21:41 UTC
8. 2.0 53 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 21:40 UTC
9. 2.1 18 km SE of Chignik, Alaska 09:25 UTC
10. 2.3 28 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 21:13 UTC
11. 2.7 63 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 11:49 UTC
12. 1.5 40 km SSE of Chignik, Alaska 00:56 UTC
13. 3.1 61 km SSE of Perryville, Alaska 09:35 UTC
14. 1.8 89 km ESE of Perryville, Alaska 00:45 UTC
15. 2.6 51 km SE of Perryville, Alaska 11:08 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 05:25 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.