EARTHQUAKEM5.6

M5.6 earthquake near Lake Minchumina, Alaska

Map: the earthquake near Lake Minchumina, Alaska, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck 27 mi (43 km) north-northwest of Lake Minchumina, Alaska on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 11:07 UTC, at a depth of 3 mi (4 km), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest.

107 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM5.6
Depth3 mi (4 km)
Time (UTC)Oct 15 11:07
Location64.22°N 152.75°W
Nearest townLake Minchumina · 43 km
Energy4 kilotons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+4
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports107
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 391 mi (629 km) from the nearest major plate boundary, which makes it an intraplate earthquake. These happen on old faults inside a plate, where stress from the plate’s slow movement is released. They are less common, but can surprise areas that rarely feel quakes.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a strike-slip earthquake: the two sides of the fault slid past each other sideways, like California’s San Andreas Fault.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 7 on the Modified Mercalli scale: very strong.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.6 released roughly the energy of 4 kilotons of TNT. That is about 251 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 710,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 11 days after it, USGS recorded 4 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 62 mi (100 km). The largest was a magnitude 3.0 on October 15 at 13:05 UTC.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 23 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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