QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 1.8ml

17 km SSW of Nanwalek, Alaska

· 66 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

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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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
66 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 17 hours ago

A magnitude 1.8 earthquake was recorded 17 km SSW of Nanwalek, Alaska at 08:16 UTC on 2026-10-02. This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

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 5.8 on 2019-05-27 — about 1,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 11 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 6.4 25 km NW of Nanwalek, Alaska · 36 km NNW of this epicentre
  2. 5.7 30 km ESE of Port Graham, Alaska · 38 km E of this epicentre
  3. 5.5 6 km WNW of Nanwalek, Alaska · 18 km N of this epicentre
  4. 5.4 22 km ESE of Port Graham, Alaska · 31 km ENE of this epicentre
  5. 5.4 41 km WNW of Nanwalek, Alaska · 44 km NW 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 59.2080, -152.0110. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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.

On USGS

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