The March 13, 1957 earthquake
M6.6near Adak, Alaska
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake 15.5 miles deep, 8.2 miles off Aleutians West Census Area. The 173rd strongest in Alaska’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 7.0 on March 11, 1957. 3 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 6.6
- moment magnitude (mw)
- Depth
- 15.5 mi
- 25.0 km below the surface
- Local time
- Wednesday, March 13, 1957
- 04:42 NST; 15:42 UTC
- In Alaska’s record
- 173rd
- strongest of 124,625 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event iscgem886146 (“152 km WSW of Adak, Alaska”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.
Aftershocks
Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.
3
Aftershocks in 30 days
7.2
Largest aftershock, Mar 16, 1957 · its page
0
On the first day
3
In the 7 days before
- The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
- Before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s many small aftershocks went unrecorded, so early sequences read short.
Counties and cities within 50 miles
Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.
Counties
- Aleutians West Census AreaAK · 8.2 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
3,893 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first
- July 7, 1929M7.3
- July 5, 1929M7.0
- March 11, 1957M7.0
- March 30, 1913M6.9
- January 4, 1912M6.8
- June 1, 1955M6.7
- June 20, 1955M6.7
- October 13, 1926M6.7
- April 17, 1954M6.6
- December 11, 1944M6.6
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.