98 km SSE of Adak, 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 104 km (65 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 21 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 7,900× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.1 about 21 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 45× 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 5.6 on 2017-04-04 — about 180 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 81 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.1 75 km S of Adak, Alaska · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Mar 14, 1957
2. 7.0 101 km S of Adak, Alaska · 13 km WSW of this epicentre Sep 9, 1910
3. 6.7 76 km SSE of Adak, Alaska · 24 km N of this epicentre Dec 10, 1905
4. 6.5 57 km S of Adak, Alaska · 49 km NW of this epicentre Jun 18, 1986
5. 6.2 59 km S of Adak, Alaska · 40 km NNW of this epicentre Nov 22, 1950

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 51.0321, -176.1858. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.8 104 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 16:37 UTC
2. 4.5 98 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 13:54 UTC
3. 3.1 94 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 12:13 UTC
4. 4.0 104 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 11:05 UTC
5. 3.2 103 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 06:17 UTC
6. 2.7 98 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 03:15 UTC
7. 3.0 109 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 23:12 UTC
8. 1.9 78 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 20:00 UTC
9. 1.8 56 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 18:58 UTC
10. 2.8 101 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 18:05 UTC
11. 2.8 105 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 17:07 UTC
12. 2.8 95 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 15:15 UTC
13. 3.2 115 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 14:47 UTC
14. 3.9 142 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 13:41 UTC
15. 3.2 107 km SSE of Adak, Alaska 09:53 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:41 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.