QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 2.9ml

66 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska

· 131 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Denali Borough 56 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 2.9 (ml)
Depth
131 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Denali Borough, 56 km NNE
Nearest mapped fault
Denali fault, under 1 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 45 minutes ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 5.3 on 2016-05-15 — about 4,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 20 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 7.2 Mount McKinley (Denali) area, Alaska · 13 km NE of this epicentre
  2. 6.4 Mount McKinley (Denali) area, Alaska · 22 km N of this epicentre
  3. 5.7 66 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska · 4 km SSW of this epicentre
  4. 5.5 53 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska · 18 km NNW of this epicentre
  5. 5.5 59 km SE of Denali National Park, Alaska · 24 km WSW of this epicentre

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 63.2440, -150.5750. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Denali Borough, AK 56 km (35 mi) NNE earthquakes near Denali Borough
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK 122 km (76 mi) SSE earthquakes near Matanuska-Susitna Borough

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

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . 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 changedFromToWhen
longitude-150.57-150.57
depth130.5131.3
magnitude2.82.9
location65 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska66 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska
longitude-150.6-150.57
depth129.1130.5
magnitude2.52.8
location62 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska65 km ESE of Denali National Park, Alaska
longitude-150.66-150.6
latitude63.2563.24
depth127.9129.1
magnitude2.42.5

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.