56 km S of Ivanof Bay, 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 49 km (30 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 5.7 on 2020-07-22 — about 1,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.4 54 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 49 km SSW of this epicentre May 31, 1917
2. 6.3 68 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 47 km S of this epicentre Oct 30, 1932
3. 6.0 54 km E of Sand Point, Alaska · 11 km SSW of this epicentre Oct 3, 1916
4. 5.8 43 km SSE of Perryville, Alaska · 41 km ENE of this epicentre Nov 2, 1930
5. 5.5 83 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska · 45 km SSE of this epicentre Jun 23, 2001

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 55.3920, -159.5559. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.0 37 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska 15:52 UTC
2. 2.1 73 km S of Perryville, Alaska 09:28 UTC
3. 2.9 78 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska 13:35 UTC
4. 1.6 80 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska 02:45 UTC
5. 2.2 42 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska 06:50 UTC
6. 1.9 54 km S of Perryville, Alaska 15:08 UTC
7. 1.9 52 km S of Perryville, Alaska 16:18 UTC
8. 1.7 45 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska 06:44 UTC
9. 2.0 59 km S of Ivanof Bay, Alaska 11:39 UTC
10. 2.4 49 km S of Perryville, Alaska 07:35 UTC
11. 1.8 41 km NE of Sand Point, Alaska 02:50 UTC
12. 2.0 24 km SW of Ivanof Bay, Alaska 16:40 UTC
13. 3.7 18 km SW of Ivanof Bay, Alaska 22:50 UTC
14. 2.0 78 km ESE of Sand Point, Alaska 22:16 UTC
15. 1.6 15 km SW of Ivanof Bay, Alaska 10:18 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:30 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.