A minor earthquake struck 97 miles northwest of Juneau at 8:25 a.m. Thursday morning and could be felt by some in the capital city, according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.
The quake, which was measured at magnitude 3.9 on the Richter scale, was just one mile deep — quite shallow, by earthquake standards — but it was weak enough and its epicenter far enough from any population center that there have been no reports of damage, said seismologist Natasha Ruppert at the Fairbanks-based AEIC.
“This was pretty far — relatively far — from any population centers,” said Ruppert. “Even 10 miles away, it wasn’t strong enough to cause damage.”
The epicenter of the quake was 42 miles southwest of Klukwan, the nearest populated place to where it hit.
Ruppert said earthquakes of this magnitude are relatively uncommon in Southeast Alaska.
“In that particular region, you don’t see that many magnitude 4s,” Ruppert said. “Maybe once every couple of months. These are much more common in the Aleutian Arc, for example, but not in Southeast Alaska.”
Three smaller quakes, ranging from magnitudes 1.6 to 2.6, struck in the same area Tuesday. Several other small quakes have been recorded in Yakutat Bay, at the northwestern extremity of the Southeast region, this week.
Aftershocks will occur from the Thursday morning earthquake over the next couple of days, Ruppert said, but they are not likely to pose any threat.
“There will be aftershocks, but they will be very small magnitude too, maybe up to magnitude 3,” said Ruppert.
Most earthquakes in the Aleutians occur deep below the surface, while Southeast earthquakes tend to be shallow, according to the AEIC’s data.
• Contact reporter Mark D. Miller at 523-2279 or at mark.d.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (3)
Add commentnot if
Remember it is not IF we will have one it is WHEN!! Lots of us never think the when will happen.......... time to think about it..............What will happen to the Salmon Creek Dam, Gold Creek ( city water ), The Douglas Bridge, The Airport ( built on fill) the Rock dump area (barge landing built on fill) how will support get here ???
Yes but
Yes, it is not a question of "if" but "when" will the Cascadia fault off the west coast of Oregon and Washington will subduct and cause a huge earthquake and will probably devastate every place along the coast from Northern California to Vancouver, B.C - and it may even affect our area.
That fault has subducted regularly over a long, long period of time about every 300 years, more or less. The last time it did, in 1700, a resulting tsunami struck Japan and was recorded.
There is nothing we can do to change plate techtonics, but we can plan on what we will have to do when a big quake occurs.
Good point, Wally
We'll probably be more adversely affected by the giant Puget Sound quake than we would be if the Douglas Bridge came down, given that pretty much all of our supplies come from down there.
Maybe THAT'S the quake we all should be worrying about.