49 km W of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 120 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,400× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.6 about 120 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 250× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 5.3 on 2016-06-29 — about 11 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.7 Alaska Peninsula · 42 km NE of this epicentre Jun 10, 1968
2. 5.0 44 km WSW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska · 14 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 21, 1977
3. 5.0 54 km NW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska · 46 km NNE of this epicentre May 30, 1979
4. 5.0 38 km WNW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska · 13 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 15, 2007
5. 5.0 60 km WNW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska · 15 km NW of this epicentre Oct 16, 2007

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 56.0189, -162.0011. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 66 km WSW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 01:00 UTC
2. 1.8 49 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 18:22 UTC
3. 2.9 50 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 05:34 UTC
4. 2.6 54 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 13:29 UTC
5. 2.6 35 km WNW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 06:41 UTC
6. 1.7 33 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 13:26 UTC
7. 1.7 59 km WSW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 20:50 UTC
8. 2.6 28 km WSW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 10:30 UTC
9. 2.3 15 km W of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 02:23 UTC
10. 3.0 43 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 16:36 UTC
11. 4.5 55 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 07:40 UTC
12. 1.9 52 km W of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 05:32 UTC
13. 3.2 46 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 05:04 UTC
14. 2.9 32 km NW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 08:29 UTC
15. 3.7 48 km SW of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska 10:16 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:46 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.