163 km S of False Pass, 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 12 km (7 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 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 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 5.9 on 2016-10-27 — about 1,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 45 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 8.6 The 1946 Unimak Island, Alaska Earthquake · 16 km NE of this epicentre Apr 1, 1946
2. 6.2 172 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska · 14 km ESE of this epicentre Apr 2, 1946
3. 6.2 184 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 37 km SW of this epicentre Apr 6, 1946
4. 6.1 166 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 7 km WSW of this epicentre Oct 14, 1929
5. 6.0 195 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 36 km SSW of this epicentre Aug 14, 1924

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 53.4043, -163.0313. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.9 147 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:44 UTC
2. 3.8 205 km S of False Pass, Alaska 19:12 UTC
3. 4.0 201 km S of False Pass, Alaska 19:12 UTC
4. 2.6 121 km S of False Pass, Alaska 05:02 UTC
5. 2.9 128 km S of False Pass, Alaska 16:01 UTC
6. 3.2 134 km S of False Pass, Alaska 22:35 UTC
7. 2.4 120 km S of False Pass, Alaska 08:05 UTC
8. 2.5 160 km S of False Pass, Alaska 13:55 UTC
9. 2.6 131 km S of False Pass, Alaska 22:09 UTC
10. 2.4 133 km S of False Pass, Alaska 00:40 UTC
11. 2.3 133 km S of False Pass, Alaska 14:28 UTC
12. 2.9 143 km S of False Pass, Alaska 17:55 UTC
13. 3.0 165 km S of False Pass, Alaska 17:56 UTC
14. 3.0 139 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 01:28 UTC
15. 2.6 197 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 05:53 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:00 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.