QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.7mb

230 km W of Adak, Alaska

Yes. A magnitude 3.7 earthquake was recorded 230 km W of Adak, Alaska at 13:45 UTC on 2021-01-03, 5.7 km deep.

· 5.7 km deep · released about 5.4 tons 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 3.7 (mb)
Depth
5.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2071 days ago

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 76 km (47 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 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 32,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.7 about 5.4 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 11× 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 5.2 on 2016-11-23 — about 180 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 36 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 6.9 231 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 48 km S of this epicentre
  2. 6.7 237 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 41 km S of this epicentre
  3. 6.7 205 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 35 km SE of this epicentre
  4. 6.7 227 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 36 km SSE of this epicentre
  5. 6.7 221 km WSW of Adak, Alaska · 27 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 51.7266, -179.9662. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 230 km W of Adak, Alaska
  2. 2.2 212 km WSW of Adak, Alaska
  3. 1.8 211 km W of Adak, Alaska
  4. 2.7 200 km W of Adak, Alaska
  5. 2.9 226 km W of Adak, Alaska
  6. 2.0 211 km W of Adak, Alaska
  7. 1.9 223 km WSW of Adak, Alaska
  8. 3.1 225 km WSW of Adak, Alaska
  9. 2.6 223 km W of Adak, Alaska
  10. 3.1 216 km W of Adak, Alaska
  11. 2.0 211 km W of Adak, Alaska
  12. 1.6 221 km WSW of Adak, Alaska
  13. 1.9 222 km WSW of Adak, Alaska
  14. 2.7 215 km W of Adak, Alaska
  15. 2.8 223 km W of Adak, 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.