Earthquake near Anchorage, AK

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 Anchorage, 37 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 170 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.6× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 170 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 7,900,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 14 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 4 km NE of Beluga, Alaska · 50 km WNW of this epicentre Oct 23, 1936
2. 6.8 24 km ENE of Sterling, Alaska · 32 km SSW of this epicentre Oct 3, 1954
3. 6.4 19 km SSE of Tyonek, Alaska · 44 km W of this epicentre Jul 30, 1941
4. 5.8 20 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska · 45 km NW of this epicentre Dec 4, 2012
5. 5.5 26 km SSW of Anchorage, Alaska · 10 km NE of this epicentre May 24, 1995

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 60.9310, -150.2340. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 16 km NNW of Point Possession, Alaska 11:29 UTC
2. 2.5 21 km NNE of Sterling, Alaska 06:11 UTC
3. 2.2 15 km E of Sterling, Alaska 03:20 UTC
4. 2.0 25 km NE of Sterling, Alaska 02:51 UTC
5. 1.9 21 km E of Point Possession, Alaska 07:52 UTC
6. 1.9 16 km E of Point Possession, Alaska 03:47 UTC
7. 1.8 31 km NW of Cooper Landing, Alaska 14:59 UTC
8. 3.5 27 km NNW of Cooper Landing, Alaska 14:46 UTC
9. 2.0 25 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska 05:33 UTC
10. 1.8 23 km SSW of Anchorage, Alaska 00:33 UTC
11. 2.0 24 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska 07:17 UTC
12. 2.0 17 km E of Beluga, Alaska 21:01 UTC
13. 1.8 15 km N of Point Possession, Alaska 20:22 UTC
14. 1.9 9 km WSW of Hope, Alaska 20:05 UTC
15. 1.6 30 km ENE of Beluga, Alaska 19:26 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:50 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.