Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 5.0mwr
81 km S of Sand Point, Alaska
Yes. A magnitude 5.0 earthquake was recorded 81 km S of Sand Point, Alaska, at 2:40 am AKDT on 20 October 2026 (10:40 UTC), 35 km deep. 4 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 5.0 (mwr)
- Depth
- 35 km below the surface
- Felt
- 4 reports · strongest reported intensity III
- Tsunami
- USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
- Nearest
- Aleutians East Borough, 128 km NW
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 31 hours ago
Earthquake alerts for Sand Point, AK
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Sand Point, AK. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.
At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 190 km (118 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 480 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.0 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 350× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 16× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 11× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 5.0 about 480 tons of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1,000× 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 7.3 on 2025-07-16 — about 2,800 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 29 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.6 85 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 49 km ENE of this epicentre
- 6.2 35 km S of Sand Point, Alaska · 47 km NNW of this epicentre
- 6.1 79 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska · 39 km ENE of this epicentre
- 6.0 71 km SSE of Sand Point, Alaska · 28 km NE of this epicentre
- 5.9 63 km S of Sand Point, Alaska · 28 km NW 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 54.6088, -160.3291. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aleutians East Borough, AK | 128 km (79 mi) | NW | earthquakes near Aleutians East Borough |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
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.
Revisions
USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.
| What changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| felt reports | 3 | 4 | |
| reported intensity | 3.1 | 3.3 | |
| felt reports | 2 | 3 | |
| reported intensity | 2 | 3.1 | |
| felt reports | 1 | 2 |
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.