Earthquake near Ester, AK

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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: College, Fairbanks, Badger.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 250× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.4 about 3.8 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 4.4 on 2022-12-07 — about 32,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.7 15 km SSW of Badger, Alaska · 21 km E of this epicentre Jun 21, 1967
2. 5.5 3 km ESE of Farmers Loop, Alaska · 32 km NE of this epicentre Jun 21, 1967
3. 5.5 10 km SSW of Badger, Alaska · 24 km E of this epicentre Jun 21, 1967
4. 5.3 6 km NW of Farmers Loop, Alaska · 32 km NNE of this epicentre Aug 14, 1970
5. 5.1 5 km NNW of Badger, Alaska · 29 km NE of this epicentre Jun 23, 1967

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 64.6940, -148.1010. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 0.6 28 km SSW of Ester, Alaska 19:04 UTC
2. 1.3 13 km W of Ester, Alaska 13:04 UTC
3. 1.4 37 km WSW of Salcha, Alaska 08:24 UTC
4. 1.7 6 km SSW of Ester, Alaska 06:07 UTC
5. 1.1 2 km NE of Fairbanks, Alaska 05:31 UTC
6. 1.2 4 km NW of Farmers Loop, Alaska 21:00 UTC
7. 1.4 5 km NNW of Badger, Alaska 15:55 UTC
8. 1.2 3 km NW of Farmers Loop, Alaska 21:07 UTC
9. 1.5 21 km S of South Van Horn, Alaska 20:20 UTC
10. 1.5 48 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska 17:31 UTC
11. 1.2 11 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska 06:16 UTC
12. 1.1 47 km SSW of South Van Horn, Alaska 00:56 UTC
13. 1.5 41 km S of South Van Horn, Alaska 03:49 UTC
14. 1.4 44 km E of Clear, Alaska 01:48 UTC
15. 1.4 3 km N of Fox, Alaska 18:38 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 09:21 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.

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.