A swarm of earthquakes, some strong, hit the Alaska Islands
A swarm of earthquakes was recorded Tuesday in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, including the largest post-quake magnitude 6.8 magnitude. Officials said some reports of underwater earthquakes in the North Pacific are being felt in nearby communities in a sparsely populated region of Alaska, and there are no reports of damage.
Natalia Rupert, a seismologist at the Alaska Earthquake Center, said it was “a very unusual, very energetic swarm of earthquakes.”
The largest quake, a magnitude 6.8, occurred a few minutes earlier, before some foreseen. The strong earthquake struck at about 2:36 a.m. about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Nikolsky, a community of 39 residents on Alaska’s Unmak Island. The community is located approximately 900 miles (1,448 km) southwest of Anchorage, the state’s largest city.
About an hour later, a magnitude 6.6 tremor was reported in the same region, followed by about a dozen aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or greater throughout the morning.
Jeremy Zideck, spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said state emergency officials, along with both Nikolsky and Unalaska, home to Dutch Harbor, one of the nation’s busiest commercial fishing ports, after both major quakes. checked.
No community reported any damage, and in fact in Unalaska — which lies about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of the quake’s epicenter — didn’t feel either, he said.
Zidek said this region of the Aleutian, a chain of islands that runs off southwest Alaska, has experienced a lot of seismic activity in the past year, including several major earthquakes.
He said no one caused any major damage or tsunami.
“We don’t want people to be satisfied just because there have been strong earthquakes and they haven’t created a tsunami,” Zidek said. “That doesn’t mean the next strong earthquake won’t happen.”
He warned that if a community activates tsunami warning sirens or if the earthquake produces violent vibrations for 20 seconds or more and you are near a coastal area, “it is time to move to higher ground.”
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