Earthquake near Knik-Fairview, AK

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 14 km (9 mi) from the epicentre. In Knik-Fairview, 42 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Willow, Big Lake, Houston.

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 7.1 on 2018-11-30 — about 89,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 24 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 27 km SE of Skwentna, Alaska · 40 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 3, 1943
2. 5.9 23 km NE of Willow, Alaska · 45 km NE of this epicentre Jan 1, 1975
3. 5.8 27 km N of Beluga, Alaska · 45 km SW of this epicentre Jun 19, 1933
4. 5.8 20 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska · 49 km SSW of this epicentre Dec 4, 2012
5. 5.6 11 km NW of Big Lake, Alaska · 14 km ESE of this epicentre Oct 7, 1966

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 61.6360, -150.3580. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 35 km E of Skwentna, Alaska 17:12 UTC
2. 2.1 2 km NNW of Susitna, Alaska 14:44 UTC
3. 2.4 19 km NNE of Willow, Alaska 10:28 UTC
4. 2.0 7 km NW of Point MacKenzie, Alaska 05:17 UTC
5. 1.6 11 km E of Willow, Alaska 02:18 UTC
6. 2.9 13 km SSW of Susitna, Alaska 00:15 UTC
7. 1.9 24 km NW of Susitna, Alaska 21:09 UTC
8. 1.7 32 km WNW of Willow, Alaska 17:39 UTC
9. 1.6 32 km ESE of Skwentna, Alaska 08:58 UTC
10. 1.7 5 km SSE of Willow, Alaska 05:54 UTC
11. 3.0 16 km SW of Susitna, Alaska 05:51 UTC
12. 2.0 25 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska 05:33 UTC
13. 1.7 9 km SSE of Willow, Alaska 03:46 UTC
14. 2.1 3 km E of Big Lake, Alaska 14:27 UTC
15. 1.8 5 km SSE of Willow, Alaska 09:32 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:21 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.