Earthquake near King Cove, AK

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 22 km (14 mi) from the epicentre. In King Cove, 16 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: King Cove 16 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 4.7 on 2016-09-06 — about 1,400 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.0 59 km ENE of King Cove, Alaska · 44 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 25, 1917
2. 5.8 61 km SE of King Cove, Alaska · 49 km SE of this epicentre May 7, 1937
3. 5.1 65 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska · 49 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 22, 2011
4. 5.0 58 km SE of King Cove, Alaska · 49 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 21, 1983
5. 5.0 56 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska · 41 km ESE of this epicentre Oct 8, 1987

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 55.0538, -162.0638. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.6 42 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 02:56 UTC
2. 1.8 18 km SSE of Cold Bay, Alaska 19:01 UTC
3. 2.0 34 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 12:15 UTC
4. 2.7 44 km NE of Cold Bay, Alaska 23:26 UTC
5. 2.6 14 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 03:56 UTC
6. 2.0 21 km E of King Cove, Alaska 16:01 UTC
7. 1.8 5 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska 14:02 UTC
8. 2.7 48 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 10:02 UTC
9. 1.5 32 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 21:20 UTC
10. 2.1 49 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 23:56 UTC
11. 2.1 42 km SSE of King Cove, Alaska 20:13 UTC
12. 1.9 48 km ESE of King Cove, Alaska 23:02 UTC
13. 1.7 29 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 14:42 UTC
14. 2.1 27 km S of King Cove, Alaska 22:56 UTC
15. 2.9 29 km SE of King Cove, Alaska 20:46 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:11 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.