Earthquake near King Cove, AK

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, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 93 km (58 mi) from the epicentre. In King Cove, 47 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.

Likely felt in: King Cove 47 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

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 (31 mi) since our catalogue begins in 2016. The previous largest was M 4.3 on 2018-06-11.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 2 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.5 47 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 45 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 26, 1929
2. 5.9 14 km NNE of False Pass, Alaska · 18 km W of this epicentre Sep 4, 1971

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 54.9580, -163.0390. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.0 6 km SW of Cold Bay, Alaska 00:07 UTC
2. 2.0 16 km SW of False Pass, Alaska 22:13 UTC
3. 2.5 19 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 18:59 UTC
4. 2.3 14 km NNE of False Pass, Alaska 04:14 UTC
5. 1.9 19 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 23:05 UTC
6. 2.9 34 km W of Cold Bay, Alaska 05:04 UTC
7. 2.2 Alaska Peninsula 13:02 UTC
8. 2.1 40 km ESE of False Pass, Alaska 03:38 UTC
9. 3.8 36 km N of False Pass, Alaska 05:50 UTC
10. 2.2 10 km SW of Cold Bay, Alaska 14:01 UTC
11. 1.7 44 km SW of King Cove, Alaska 11:41 UTC
12. 2.6 12 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 09:37 UTC
13. 2.1 15 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 02:43 UTC
14. 2.1 36 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 00:24 UTC
15. 2.9 20 km SW of Cold Bay, Alaska 09:08 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:10 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.