QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.7mww

156 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska

Yes. A magnitude 5.7 earthquake was recorded 156 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska at 06:40 UTC on 2020-08-13, 28 km deep.

· 28 km deep · released about 5.4 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 5.7 (mww)
Depth
28 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 326 days ago

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 292 km (181 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 5.4 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Loma Prieta, California 1989 M 6.9 63× the energy of this one
  2. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 32× the energy of this one
  3. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.7 about 5.4 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 11,000× 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 2 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 57 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 6.6 146 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 13 km NNW of this epicentre
  2. 6.2 Unimak Island region, Alaska · 42 km NNW of this epicentre
  3. 6.2 136 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 23 km W of this epicentre
  4. 6.2 136 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 24 km N of this epicentre
  5. 6.2 184 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 31 km SSE of this epicentre

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 53.4301, -163.7134. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.7 150 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  2. 4.0 162 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  3. 2.0 146 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska
  4. 2.3 165 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  5. 2.3 158 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska
  6. 3.5 120 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska
  7. 2.6 116 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska
  8. 2.3 152 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska
  9. 3.2 162 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  10. 3.3 160 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  11. 3.3 158 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  12. 3.3 152 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  13. 3.1 155 km S of False Pass, Alaska
  14. 2.7 163 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska
  15. 2.0 159 km ESE of Akutan, 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.

On USGS

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