88 km SSW of Unalaska, 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 78 km (48 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 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 16,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 22× 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 5.5 on 2019-07-09 — about 250 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 44 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.8 81 km E of Nikolski, Alaska · 41 km WSW of this epicentre Jul 2, 1965
2. 6.9 80 km E of Nikolski, Alaska · 44 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 24, 1980
3. 6.9 67 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska · 38 km NNW of this epicentre Feb 27, 1987
4. 6.8 81 km ENE of Nikolski, Alaska · 41 km W of this epicentre Jan 13, 1955
5. 6.8 68 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska · 20 km NNE of this epicentre Mar 29, 1957

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 53.1527, -167.0810. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.3 65 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska 10:16 UTC
2. 2.0 92 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska 01:50 UTC
3. 1.7 86 km S of Unalaska, Alaska 23:02 UTC
4. 2.1 81 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska 16:21 UTC
5. 1.6 79 km S of Unalaska, Alaska 17:53 UTC
6. 1.5 91 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska 05:22 UTC
7. 2.0 75 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska 12:34 UTC
8. 1.6 95 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska 10:57 UTC
9. 1.5 81 km SW of Unalaska, Alaska 10:06 UTC
10. 2.0 75 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska 20:38 UTC
11. 4.7 81 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska 13:42 UTC
12. 3.5 101 km SSW of Unalaska, Alaska 12:36 UTC
13. 1.8 77 km S of Unalaska, Alaska 03:16 UTC
14. 1.7 102 km E of Nikolski, Alaska 00:14 UTC
15. 2.0 97 km ENE of Nikolski, Alaska 21:09 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 04:06 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.