218 km SE of Akutan, Alaska

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 25 km (16 mi) from the epicentre. 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 480 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 32,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 480 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 2016-07-19 — about 250 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.9 228 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 45 km ENE of this epicentre Oct 13, 1972
2. 5.5 218 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 2 km SSW of this epicentre May 3, 2010
3. 5.1 200 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 26 km W of this epicentre Jul 8, 1989

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 52.6281, -163.6746. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.9 230 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 17:12 UTC
2. 2.7 222 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 05:44 UTC
3. 2.7 194 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 12:33 UTC
4. 2.5 183 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 22:38 UTC
5. 2.2 198 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 08:46 UTC
6. 2.1 234 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 18:07 UTC
7. 3.0 205 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 14:40 UTC
8. 3.3 232 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 10:08 UTC
9. 2.5 262 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 04:09 UTC
10. 2.4 211 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 16:53 UTC
11. 2.8 216 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 16:30 UTC
12. 2.8 223 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 05:46 UTC
13. 2.2 228 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 10:07 UTC
14. 2.5 177 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 05:10 UTC
15. 2.3 236 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 23:30 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 07:39 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.