125 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 it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 lb of TNT

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 89,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 63 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 8.6 The 1946 Unimak Island, Alaska Earthquake · 47 km SE of this epicentre Apr 1, 1946
2. 6.6 146 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 32 km SW of this epicentre Apr 1, 1946
3. 6.2 Unimak Island region, Alaska · 36 km W of this epicentre Oct 14, 1933
4. 6.2 102 km SSW of False Pass, Alaska · 49 km NW of this epicentre Aug 20, 1939
5. 6.2 136 km S of False Pass, Alaska · 24 km WSW of this epicentre Apr 2, 1946

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 53.7282, -163.4201. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 123 km S of False Pass, Alaska 06:34 UTC
2. 2.5 156 km S of False Pass, Alaska 20:30 UTC
3. 2.0 93 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 00:21 UTC
4. 2.1 103 km S of False Pass, Alaska 14:11 UTC
5. 2.4 162 km S of False Pass, Alaska 23:52 UTC
6. 2.0 77 km S of False Pass, Alaska 12:19 UTC
7. 3.8 141 km S of False Pass, Alaska 05:08 UTC
8. 2.6 91 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:17 UTC
9. 1.9 92 km S of False Pass, Alaska 07:38 UTC
10. 1.7 93 km S of False Pass, Alaska 09:12 UTC
11. 2.8 93 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 04:33 UTC
12. 2.8 145 km S of False Pass, Alaska 04:08 UTC
13. 3.8 140 km S of False Pass, Alaska 18:14 UTC
14. 3.3 131 km S of False Pass, Alaska 07:15 UTC
15. 2.2 98 km S of False Pass, Alaska 13:32 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 21:56 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.