135 km SW of Nikolski, 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 170 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.6× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 170 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 5.8 on 2019-10-26 — about 89,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 80 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.6 135 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska · 22 km SE of this epicentre Dec 23, 1906
2. 6.2 91 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska · 50 km ENE of this epicentre Feb 10, 1953
3. 6.2 179 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska · 45 km SW of this epicentre Jun 4, 1956
4. 6.1 88 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska · 48 km ENE of this epicentre Sep 2, 1950
5. 6.1 Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska · 49 km SW of this epicentre Jan 11, 1961

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 52.1142, -170.3394. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.8 144 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 10:46 UTC
2. 2.8 Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska 06:42 UTC
3. 2.6 103 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 21:26 UTC
4. 2.8 127 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 06:19 UTC
5. 2.6 101 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 21:21 UTC
6. 1.9 Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska 18:24 UTC
7. 3.4 145 km WSW of Nikolski, Alaska 23:23 UTC
8. 2.6 142 km WSW of Nikolski, Alaska 00:42 UTC
9. 3.1 130 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 12:06 UTC
10. 2.9 114 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 05:38 UTC
11. 2.2 90 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 06:09 UTC
12. 3.2 126 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 17:05 UTC
13. 3.5 Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska 00:34 UTC
14. 3.2 145 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 03:07 UTC
15. 2.8 100 km SW of Nikolski, Alaska 22:52 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:54 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.