Alaska earthquakes

M5.0 earthquake 217 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 217 km SSE of Old Harbor, Alaska on Wed, Jan 1, 2020, 11:54 PM AKST (08:54 UTC), 13 km (8 mi) below the surface.

Womens Bay forecast More in Alaska

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.0 (Mww, W-phase moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Wed, Jan 1, 2020, 11:54 PM AKST
UTC: 2020-01-02 08:54:33 UTC
Depth: 13.3 km (8.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 55.549° N, 151.427° W
Region: Alaska
Felt reports: 1
Tsunami flag: Yes: a large quake in an oceanic region
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
5.0	Mww, W-phase moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.032 · 96 stations
5.06	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.0	Mww, W-phase moment	Alaska Earthquake Center	Preliminary
4.9	ML, local (Richter)	NOAA National Tsunami Warning Center	Reviewed · 28 stations
4.8	Mwr, regional moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Moment tensor · Reviewed

Tsunami

The USGS flags a quake this large in an oceanic region. The flag does not mean a tsunami happened; the tsunami warning centers decide that, and their messages are below when they issued any.

Current tsunami warnings: tsunami.gov. Warnings in force in the US also appear on our alerts pages.

Did you feel it?

1 person reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was II, weak shaking.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Normal
Moment magnitude: 5.0 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 218°, dip 34°, rake -64°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 7°, dip 60°, rake -107°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 5.6 km horizontally, 2.6 km in depth
Magnitude uncertainty: ±0.03
Depth from: From location
Station coverage gap: 102°
Stations used: 318

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Womens Bay, AlaskaPopulation 719. Forecast249 kmSSE

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.0 and up: 6 in the 60 days after this one and 16 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Alaska earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us70006tgh (also filed as at00q3h22x, ak0203g5sui, iscgem617094520). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 12:29 AM UTC.