Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 2.6ml
Earthquake near Willow, AK
Yes. A magnitude 2.6 earthquake was recorded 49 km (30 mi) west of Willow, AK, at 5:21 pm AKDT on 16 October 2026 (01:21 UTC), 77 km deep. No felt reports to USGS yet. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
USGS: 33 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska
84 km (52 mi) NW of Anchorage, AK
- When
- 5:21 pm AKDT on 16 October 2026 ()
- Where
- 49 km (30 mi) west of Willow, AK · earthquakes near Willow
- Magnitude
- M 2.6 (ml)
- Depth
- 77 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough, 94 km NE
- Status
- Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2 hours ago
Earthquake alerts for Willow, AK
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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 Willow, 49 km away, the estimate is intensity I (not felt). 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.
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.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
- 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 6.0 on 2025-11-27 — about 130,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 21 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.9 27 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska · 5 km NW of this epicentre
- 6.2 22 km WSW of Skwentna, Alaska · 48 km WNW of this epicentre
- 5.8 27 km N of Beluga, Alaska · 43 km S of this epicentre
- 5.7 19 km E of Skwentna, Alaska · 23 km N of this epicentre
- 5.6 11 km NW of Big Lake, Alaska · 49 km ESE 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 61.7750, -150.9670. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK | 94 km (58 mi) | NE | earthquakes near Matanuska-Susitna Borough |
| Anchorage Municipality, AK | 112 km (69 mi) | SE | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| location | 32 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | 33 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | |
| longitude | -150.99 | -150.97 | |
| latitude | 61.77 | 61.78 | |
| depth | 75.2 | 76.5 | |
| location | 31 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | 32 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | |
| longitude | -150.99 | -150.99 | |
| latitude | 61.78 | 61.77 | |
| depth | 76.4 | 75.2 | |
| magnitude | 2.5 | 2.6 | |
| location | 30 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | 31 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska | |
| longitude | -151.02 | -150.99 | |
| depth | 77.9 | 76.4 |
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.