Earthquake near King Cove, AK

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In King Cove, 39 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 4.6 on 2016-06-29 — about 89 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 34 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.0 71 km SE of King Cove, Alaska · 39 km SSE of this epicentre May 30, 1991
2. 6.8 73 km SW of Sand Point, Alaska · 36 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 2, 1922
3. 6.7 68 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 43 km S of this epicentre Apr 29, 1937
4. 6.6 72 km SE of King Cove, Alaska · 39 km SSE of this epicentre Jan 28, 1963
5. 6.4 85 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska · 46 km SE of this epicentre Oct 13, 1999

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 54.9079, -161.7639. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.7 71 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 00:14 UTC
2. 2.9 65 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 10:50 UTC
3. 2.5 47 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska 09:43 UTC
4. 2.7 53 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska 14:45 UTC
5. 2.0 36 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 01:59 UTC
6. 2.3 76 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 20:17 UTC
7. 2.7 64 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 07:43 UTC
8. 2.3 52 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 14:00 UTC
9. 2.2 62 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 21:16 UTC
10. 2.1 76 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska 02:47 UTC
11. 2.2 29 km E of King Cove, Alaska 13:06 UTC
12. 2.4 80 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 09:49 UTC
13. 2.0 51 km E of King Cove, Alaska 05:18 UTC
14. 1.9 23 km E of King Cove, Alaska 21:24 UTC
15. 1.8 26 km E of King Cove, Alaska 16:23 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:40 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.