EARTHQUAKEM4.7

M4.7 earthquake near Nikolski, Alaska

Map: the earthquake near Nikolski, Alaska, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck 71 mi (114 km) south-southwest of Nikolski, Alaska on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 13:16 UTC, at a depth of 6 mi (10 km), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest.

MagnitudeM4.7
Depth6 mi (10 km)
Time (UTC)Oct 15 13:16
Location52.00°N 169.58°W
Nearest townNikolski · 114 km
Energy169 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+10
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 39 mi (63 km) from the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. Most earthquakes happen along plate boundaries like this one, where the pieces of Earth’s outer shell collide, pull apart or grind past each other. Stress builds up over years until the rock suddenly slips.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 4.7 released roughly the energy of 169 tons of TNT. That is about 11 times the energy of a magnitude 4.0, a quake people nearby feel but that rarely causes damage. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960, released about 16,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 11 days after it, USGS recorded 10 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 62 mi (100 km). The largest was a magnitude 4.0 on October 19 at 05:08 UTC.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 144 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on October 15, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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