89 km SE of False Pass, 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 179 km (111 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 5.0 on 2024-12-09 — about 1.4 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 26 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.5 47 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 43 km NNW of this epicentre Feb 26, 1929
2. 6.5 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 3 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 21, 1987
3. 5.8 112 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 23 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 24, 1939
4. 5.8 60 km SSW of King Cove, Alaska · 35 km N of this epicentre May 6, 1956
5. 5.7 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 2 km W of this epicentre Apr 26, 1965

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 54.2212, -162.5517. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 106 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 18:55 UTC
2. 5.4 93 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 18:51 UTC
3. 4.3 93 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 16:28 UTC
4. 2.8 106 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 14:42 UTC
5. 3.2 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 13:30 UTC
6. 3.1 90 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 12:17 UTC
7. 5.2 105 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 12:12 UTC
8. 3.1 90 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 06:00 UTC
9. 2.5 86 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 02:42 UTC
10. 2.1 100 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 01:17 UTC
11. 2.2 73 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 10:12 UTC
12. 2.5 99 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 17:40 UTC
13. 2.4 55 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 07:35 UTC
14. 2.6 97 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 20:53 UTC
15. 1.9 103 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 21:54 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 03:48 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.