QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5ml

Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Yes. A magnitude 2.5 earthquake was recorded in the Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, at 3:50 pm AKDT on 8 August 2023 (23:50 UTC), 10 km deep.

· 10 km deep · released about 170 lb of TNT

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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 2.5 (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 1123 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 20 km (12 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 170 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 170 lb of TNT

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 5.9 on 2017-05-24 — about 130,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 41 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

  1. 6.5 183 km S of Unalaska, Alaska · 48 km SSE of this epicentre
  2. 6.5 127 km E of Nikolski, Alaska · 33 km WNW of this epicentre
  3. 6.4 118 km E of Nikolski, Alaska · 42 km WNW of this epicentre
  4. 6.4 123 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska · 39 km W of this epicentre
  5. 6.3 136 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska · 25 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 52.6394, -166.5386. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 142 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  2. 2.9 147 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  3. 4.5 124 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  4. 2.0 123 km S of Unalaska, Alaska
  5. 3.1 139 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  6. 3.1 147 km S of Unalaska, Alaska
  7. 2.3 147 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  8. 2.5 136 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  9. 2.2 157 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  10. 2.3 134 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  11. 2.5 133 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  12. 4.3 127 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  13. 3.3 157 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  14. 2.9 144 km ESE of Nikolski, Alaska
  15. 2.2 143 km ESE of Nikolski, 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.