Earthquake near Akutan, AK

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 71 km (44 mi) from the epicentre. In Akutan, 36 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: Akutan 36 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 11,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.0 about 15 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 32× 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 5.4 on 2019-09-14 — about 130 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 36 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.1 39 km S of Akutan, Alaska · 33 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 22, 1957
2. 6.5 59 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 26 km E of this epicentre Apr 2, 1922
3. 6.5 83 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 48 km ESE of this epicentre Oct 30, 1946
4. 6.5 81 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska · 47 km ESE of this epicentre Feb 6, 1974
5. 6.4 50 km SE of Akutan, Alaska · 15 km SSE of this epicentre Mar 17, 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 53.9358, -165.3445. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.3 71 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 16:33 UTC
2. 2.1 43 km E of Akutan, Alaska 07:53 UTC
3. 1.8 40 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 19:41 UTC
4. 2.5 46 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 15:27 UTC
5. 2.0 54 km E of Akutan, Alaska 10:32 UTC
6. 1.6 66 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 18:43 UTC
7. 2.0 33 km E of Akutan, Alaska 09:53 UTC
8. 2.7 43 km ESE of Akutan, Alaska 09:36 UTC
9. 2.0 53 km E of Akutan, Alaska 15:36 UTC
10. 2.0 76 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 15:53 UTC
11. 3.4 16 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 01:02 UTC
12. 2.9 10 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 22:49 UTC
13. 2.0 28 km ENE of Akutan, Alaska 04:26 UTC
14. 1.9 31 km SE of Akutan, Alaska 08:10 UTC
15. 2.3 76 km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 16:44 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:02 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.