Earthquake near King Cove, 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 16 km (10 mi) from the epicentre. In King Cove, 50 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 29 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 520,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 370,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 33× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 29 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 4.6 on 2018-07-02 — about 8,200 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 4 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.5 47 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 21 km S of this epicentre Feb 26, 1929
2. 5.9 14 km NNE of False Pass, Alaska · 38 km NW of this epicentre Sep 4, 1971
3. 5.8 60 km SSW of King Cove, Alaska · 31 km SE of this epicentre May 6, 1956
4. 5.3 72 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 44 km SSE of this epicentre Nov 13, 1975

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 54.7488, -162.8812. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.4 65 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 07:14 UTC
2. 2.0 15 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 15:04 UTC
3. 2.1 63 km S of King Cove, Alaska 09:16 UTC
4. 2.3 35 km S of False Pass, Alaska 20:33 UTC
5. 2.1 52 km S of King Cove, Alaska 18:43 UTC
6. 2.2 44 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 23:13 UTC
7. 2.6 42 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 05:00 UTC
8. 2.7 46 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 04:04 UTC
9. 2.4 55 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 07:35 UTC
10. 1.9 33 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 12:11 UTC
11. 2.2 48 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 01:54 UTC
12. 2.1 46 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 22:45 UTC
13. 1.9 44 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 11:35 UTC
14. 1.5 32 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:27 UTC
15. 2.0 58 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 08:25 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:16 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

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.