153 km WNW 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 it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 120 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,400× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.6 about 120 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 250× 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 2016-11-08 — about 4 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 14 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.6 174 km W of Adak, Alaska · 43 km SW of this epicentre Apr 16, 2008
2. 6.4 170 km WNW of Adak, Alaska · 30 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 13, 1992
3. 6.3 128 km W of Adak, Alaska · 32 km SE of this epicentre May 10, 1939
4. 6.2 146 km WNW of Adak, Alaska · 6 km ESE of this epicentre Mar 22, 2008
5. 5.9 109 km WNW of Adak, Alaska · 50 km ENE of this epicentre Aug 5, 1940

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 52.1923, -178.8056. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.1 160 km W of Adak, Alaska 11:35 UTC
2. 1.1 158 km W of Adak, Alaska 01:16 UTC
3. 0.8 151 km W of Adak, Alaska 03:56 UTC
4. 0.7 152 km W of Adak, Alaska 17:12 UTC
5. 1.7 155 km W of Adak, Alaska 22:04 UTC
6. 0.4 149 km W of Adak, Alaska 20:20 UTC
7. 2.4 138 km W of Adak, Alaska 22:09 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 07:37 UTC. 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.

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.