QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.3mww

254 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska

· 34 km deep · released about 1.3 kilotons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 5.3 (mww)
Depth
34 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity II (ShakeMap)
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 279 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5.6× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.3 about 1.3 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2,800× more

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.

Where

Epicentre 56.0310, -149.2650. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.1 243 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  2. 2.8 245 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  3. 2.6 223 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  4. 3.4 249 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  5. 3.1 246 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  6. 3.5 240 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  7. 3.2 241 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  8. 2.9 262 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  9. 4.2 254 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  10. 4.6 290 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  11. 3.5 240 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  12. 3.4 242 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  13. 3.5 292 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  14. 3.2 247 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska
  15. 4.2 247 km SE of Chiniak, Alaska

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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 7.9 on 2018-01-23 — it released about 7,900 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.