94 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska

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 46 km (29 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 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× 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 2020-08-20 — about 250 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 24 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.5 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 13 km NNE of this epicentre Jun 21, 1987
2. 5.8 112 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 22 km ESE of this epicentre Feb 24, 1939
3. 5.8 60 km SSW of King Cove, Alaska · 48 km N of this epicentre May 6, 1956
4. 5.7 88 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 14 km NNE of this epicentre Apr 26, 1965
5. 5.7 99 km SE of False Pass, Alaska · 10 km E of this epicentre Nov 6, 2011

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 54.1143, -162.7017. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.6 83 km S of King Cove, Alaska 17:14 UTC
2. 2.7 94 km S of King Cove, Alaska 22:11 UTC
3. 5.0 97 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 17:34 UTC
4. 2.1 95 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 11:39 UTC
5. 2.2 113 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 20:43 UTC
6. 2.1 88 km S of King Cove, Alaska 09:59 UTC
7. 1.8 62 km S of King Cove, Alaska 10:19 UTC
8. 1.8 73 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 01:07 UTC
9. 1.9 84 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 05:53 UTC
10. 1.8 85 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 05:50 UTC
11. 2.0 113 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 19:12 UTC
12. 1.6 78 km SE of False Pass, Alaska 04:28 UTC
13. 3.9 135 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 18:00 UTC
14. 2.6 79 km S of King Cove, Alaska 16:38 UTC
15. 3.9 84 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska 13:49 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 04:46 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.