159 km SE of King Cove, Alaska

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 181 km (112 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 340 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 500× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.9 about 340 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 710× 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 2017-05-28 — about 16 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 159 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 18 km WSW of this epicentre May 25, 2002
2. 6.2 141 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 20 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 8, 1951
3. 6.1 166 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 49 km SW of this epicentre Apr 22, 1956
4. 5.9 131 km S of Sand Point, Alaska · 43 km NE of this epicentre Dec 3, 1933
5. 5.9 146 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 48 km W of this epicentre Apr 21, 1971

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 53.8975, -160.8725. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.8 115 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 14:12 UTC
2. 2.0 123 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 04:01 UTC
3. 2.9 121 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 06:05 UTC
4. 2.2 136 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 00:01 UTC
5. 2.5 123 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 04:24 UTC
6. 3.3 112 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 23:02 UTC
7. 1.7 113 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 16:18 UTC
8. 5.0 121 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 13:03 UTC
9. 3.0 116 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 12:00 UTC
10. 2.7 116 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 11:55 UTC
11. 3.4 193 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 01:35 UTC
12. 2.2 113 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska 21:21 UTC
13. 2.1 142 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 10:59 UTC
14. 1.8 117 km S of Sand Point, Alaska 06:54 UTC
15. 2.2 131 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 04:45 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:19 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.