124 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 4.9 on 2021-05-09 — about 45,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.1 109 km E of McCarthy, Alaska · 14 km WNW of this epicentre Jul 7, 1920
2. 5.7 152 km E of McCarthy, Alaska · 34 km ENE of this epicentre Jun 26, 2001
3. 5.4 140 km SSE of Alcan Border, Alaska · 36 km NE of this epicentre Jun 10, 1972
4. 5.4 136 km SSE of Alcan Border, Alaska · 47 km NE of this epicentre Mar 30, 1983
5. 5.3 136 km E of McCarthy, Alaska · 29 km NNE of this epicentre Apr 29, 2004

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 61.2180, -140.6490. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 121 km E of McCarthy, Alaska 20:32 UTC
2. 2.0 155 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 06:52 UTC
3. 1.8 137 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 17:37 UTC
4. 1.5 101 km E of McCarthy, Alaska 22:15 UTC
5. 1.6 120 km E of McCarthy, Alaska 22:07 UTC
6. 1.6 116 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 20:00 UTC
7. 1.6 150 km E of McCarthy, Alaska 15:31 UTC
8. 2.0 127 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 21:04 UTC
9. 1.8 150 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 11:31 UTC
10. 1.5 139 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 10:59 UTC
11. 1.8 140 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 07:38 UTC
12. 2.2 140 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 07:30 UTC
13. 1.7 140 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 23:13 UTC
14. 1.9 146 km E of McCarthy, Alaska 05:31 UTC
15. 1.8 151 km ESE of McCarthy, Alaska 21:52 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:36 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.