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ALASKA QUAKEDID THE GROUND SHAKE NEAR YOU?

Southwest Alaska · 60.79°N

Earthquakes near Bethel

Reading the latest USGS reports for the ground near Bethel…

Live sections load from the USGS feed. If the feed does not answer, this page says so — it never fills the gap with old numbers.

Recorded USGS earthquakes from the last 7 days, magnitude 2.5 and larger, within 250 km of Bethel. The dashed pale circle is a true 250 km radius around Bethel; amber rings are the recorded epicenters, sized by magnitude; small cream squares are the other towns, and the ringed cream marker is Bethel. If the USGS feed does not answer, the coastline, ring, and marker still show — and no events are plotted.

Most felt near Bethel — last 7 days, within 250 km

Recent near Bethel — last 7 days, M1.0 and larger within 250 km, newest first

Every event links to its USGS event page, the authority for that earthquake. Distances are measured from Bethel, not copied from the feed's place names.

The biggest on record near Bethel — USGS catalog, as recorded

The five largest earthquakes recorded within 200 km of Bethel since 1900, from USGS catalog pulls made November 8, 2026. Pre-instrumental magnitudes are estimates, and catalog completeness varies by era — the fine print is on the about page.

How often does the ground move here?

1 earthquakes of M4.0 or larger were recorded within 200 km in the last 10 years — a low rate. Since 1900 the catalog holds 8 M4-or-larger events within the same radius.

Bethel's catalog is the state's thinnest among its hub towns — eight M4-or-larger events within 200 km in the entire record — because the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta is both genuinely quiet and far from the nearest seismometers. Quiet in the catalog is partly quiet instruments.

Southwest Alaska — why it shakes

From Kodiak Island west, the Aleutian megathrust takes over. The Pacific Plate dives beneath the island arc here at several centimeters a year, and the locked segments let go in some of the planet's largest earthquakes — 1946 (Unimak, M8.6), 1957 (Andreanof Islands, M8.6), and 2021 (Chignik, M8.2) all ruptured this stretch. Between the great ones, the arc crackles almost daily with small and moderate events.

New to the numbers? What magnitude means explains the scale in plain words — including why a whole step is about 32 times the energy, and why what people feel is not the same as damage.

Bethel on the sister sites

Daylight in Bethel — sunrise, sunset, and day length.

Aurora over Bethel — tonight's northern lights outlook.

Bethel — the nearest tide station in the fleet's inventory, 1 km from Bethel.