Earthquake near Girdwood, AK

USGS: 20 km SSW of Sunrise, Alaska

58 km (36 mi) SSE of Anchorage, AK

11:59 am AKDT, Sep 28, 2026 · 2026-09-28 19:59 UTC · 26 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

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Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.

When: 11:59 am AKDT on 28 September 2026 (2026-09-28 19:59 UTC)
Where: 34 km (21 mi) SW of Girdwood, AK · earthquakes near Girdwood
Magnitude: M 2.1 (ml)
Depth: 26 km below the surface
Felt: 2 reports · strongest reported intensity I
Nearest: Anchorage Municipality, 53 km NNE
Status: Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS 4 days ago · we first saw it 4 days ago

A magnitude 2.1 earthquake was recorded 34 km (21 mi) SW of Girdwood, AK, at 11:59 am AKDT on 28 September 2026 (19:59 UTC). 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS. This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 4.5 on 2025-04-29 — about 4,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

6.8 24 km ENE of Sterling, Alaska · 44 km W of this epicentre Oct 3, 1954
5.7 13 km S of Girdwood, Alaska · 24 km ENE of this epicentre Feb 19, 1928
5.6 17 km W of Whittier, Alaska · 32 km E of this epicentre Jan 27, 1931
5.5 26 km SSW of Anchorage, Alaska · 43 km NW of this epicentre May 24, 1995
5.3 16 km WSW of Whittier, Alaska · 33 km E of this epicentre Mar 29, 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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 60.7190, -149.5870. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction from the epicentre
Anchorage Municipality, AK	53 km (33 mi)	NNE	earthquakes near Anchorage Municipality

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

Aftershocks so far

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

2.0 24 km SSW of Anchorage, Alaska 22:22 UTC
1.4 4 km E of Cooper Landing, Alaska 03:00 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:04 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

Revisions

USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.

What changed	From	To	When
reported intensity	not reported	1	23:45 UTC
felt reports	not reported	2	23:45 UTC
longitude	-149.58	-149.59	20:02 UTC
depth	28.9	25.5	20:02 UTC

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.