QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 2.6ml

46 km W of Happy Valley, Alaska

· 100 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kenai Peninsula Borough 45 km
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
Magnitude
M 2.6 (ml)
Depth
100 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kenai Peninsula Borough, 45 km NNE
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2 hours 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 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 5.6 on 2017-03-02 — about 32,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 23 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 6.4 75 km WNW of Ninilchik, Alaska · 40 km NNW of this epicentre
  2. 6.4 52 km ENE of Pedro Bay, Alaska · 37 km WSW of this epicentre
  3. 6.2 16 km WNW of Happy Valley, Alaska · 31 km E of this epicentre
  4. 6.2 70 km E of Port Alsworth, Alaska · 33 km NW of this epicentre
  5. 6.1 73 km WNW of Ninilchik, Alaska · 47 km NNW 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 59.9770, -152.5590. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK 45 km (28 mi) NNE earthquakes near Kenai Peninsula Borough

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

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.1 55 km WNW of Happy Valley, Alaska

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-152.56-152.56
latitude59.9859.98
depth100.5100.3
magnitude2.52.6
location47 km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska46 km W of Happy Valley, Alaska
longitude-152.59-152.56
latitude59.9759.98
depth101.2100.5
location48 km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska47 km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska
longitude-152.59-152.59
latitude59.9759.97
magnitude2.32.5

On USGS

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