Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 3.1ml
Earthquake near Nikiski, AK
Yes. A magnitude 3.1 earthquake was recorded 6 km (4 mi) N of Nikiski, AK, at 4:04 pm AKDT on 15 October 2026 (00:04 UTC), 66 km deep. No felt reports to USGS yet. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
USGS: 6 km N of Nikiski, Alaska
91 km (56 mi) SW of Anchorage, AK
- When
- 4:04 pm AKDT on 15 October 2026 ()
- Where
- 6 km (4 mi) N of Nikiski, AK · earthquakes near Nikiski
- Magnitude
- M 3.1 (ml)
- Depth
- 66 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Kenai Peninsula Borough, 71 km SW
- Nearest mapped fault
- Middle Ground Shoal anticline (Cook Inlet folds), 13 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 1 hour ago
Earthquake alerts for Nikiski, AK
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Nikiski, AK. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.
At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Nikiski, 6 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.
Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Kenai, Ridgeway.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× more
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 5.2 on 2017-05-30 — about 1,400 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 12 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.8 Southern Alaska · 40 km NNE of this epicentre
- 6.8 4 km NE of Beluga, Alaska · 49 km NNE of this epicentre
- 6.8 24 km ENE of Sterling, Alaska · 49 km ESE of this epicentre
- 6.7 6 km WNW of Nikiski, Alaska · 8 km WSW of this epicentre
- 6.4 19 km SSE of Tyonek, Alaska · 20 km NE 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 60.7450, -151.2670. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK | 71 km (44 mi) | SW | earthquakes near Kenai Peninsula Borough |
| Anchorage Municipality, AK | 117 km (73 mi) | ENE | earthquakes near Anchorage Municipality |
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 changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| longitude | -151.27 | -151.27 | |
| depth | 65.9 | 65.5 | |
| magnitude | 3 | 3.1 | |
| location | 7 km N of Nikiski, Alaska | 6 km N of Nikiski, Alaska | |
| longitude | -151.29 | -151.27 | |
| latitude | 60.76 | 60.75 | |
| depth | 75 | 65.9 | |
| magnitude | 3.1 | 3 |
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.