QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.3ml

162 km SE of King Cove, Alaska

Yes. A magnitude 3.3 earthquake was recorded 162 km SE of King Cove, Alaska at 04:27 UTC on 2023-12-17, 10 km deep.

· 10 km deep · released about 1.3 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 3.3 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 991 days ago

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 51 km (32 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 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 4,000 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
  2. 6.2 141 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 22 km NW of this epicentre
  3. 6.1 166 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 48 km WSW of this epicentre
  4. 5.9 131 km S of Sand Point, Alaska · 44 km NE of this epicentre
  5. 5.9 146 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska · 48 km W of this epicentre

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 53.8696, -160.8606. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 202 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska
  2. 3.0 124 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  3. 3.5 132 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  4. 2.2 149 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska
  5. 1.8 119 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  6. 2.4 133 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  7. 3.0 127 km SSW of Sand Point, Alaska
  8. 2.0 162 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska
  9. 2.0 128 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  10. 1.8 115 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  11. 2.7 190 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska
  12. 2.9 183 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska
  13. 2.2 127 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  14. 2.2 144 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
  15. 2.4 132 km S of Sand Point, Alaska

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.