98 km S of False Pass, 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 44 km (27 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 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× 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 5.9 on 2016-10-27 — about 4,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 55 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.2 Unimak Island region, Alaska · 33 km SW of this epicentre Oct 14, 1933
2. 6.2 102 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska · 29 km W of this epicentre Aug 20, 1939
3. 6.2 136 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 38 km SSW of this epicentre Apr 2, 1946
4. 6.2 115 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 38 km WSW of this epicentre Nov 20, 2005
5. 6.1 132 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 42 km SW of this epicentre Aug 30, 1956

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 53.9706, -163.5621. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 112 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 19:31 UTC
2. 2.7 74 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 21:00 UTC
3. 2.4 86 km S of False Pass, Alaska 11:31 UTC
4. 2.5 101 km S of False Pass, Alaska 19:31 UTC
5. 2.2 114 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 06:48 UTC
6. 2.6 102 km S of False Pass, Alaska 09:10 UTC
7. 2.7 85 km S of False Pass, Alaska 20:14 UTC
8. 2.8 73 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 21:27 UTC
9. 2.6 117 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 05:54 UTC
10. 3.8 121 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska 02:50 UTC
11. 2.2 96 km S of False Pass, Alaska 06:37 UTC
12. 2.0 81 km S of False Pass, Alaska 12:09 UTC
13. 2.6 111 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 04:15 UTC
14. 2.5 90 km S of False Pass, Alaska 04:47 UTC
15. 2.2 107 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska 00:47 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:43 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.