7.2 quake strikes Aleutians
No reports of injuries, damage in large temblor
ANCHORAGE - A strong earthquake rattled Alaska's seismically active Aleutian Islands, but there were no immediate reports of any damages or injuries.
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The magnitude-7.2 quake struck at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and was centered about 125 miles west of Adak in the island chain, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
A dispatcher with the Anchorage Police Department said he didn't feel the quake, some 1,300 miles away, and there were no reports of any injuries or damages.
The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 sparsely populated islands that extend southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean.
Numerous aftershocks occurred early Wednesday morning. They ranged in magnitude from 4.6 to 5.3 and were expected to continue, with decreasing magnitude, for as long as a week, said seismologist Natasha Ruppert.
"It is a major earthquake," she said.
A separate earthquake of magnitude-4.0 shook the San Bernardino Mountains resort town of Big Bear City early Wednesday about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. There were no reports of any damages or injuries from the quake, which struck shortly before 4:15 a.m., a dispatcher with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
A tsunami warning was canceled early Wednesday for Alaska's coasts after officials determined waves from the earthquake posed no widespread destructive threat.
The earth's most active seismic feature, the circum-Pacific seismic belt, brushes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, where more earthquakes occur than in the other 49 States combined.
The Andreanof Island sustained a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in March 1957 that caused very severe damage on Adak and Unimak Islands. A damaging tsunami was generated, and a wall of water 40 feet high smashed the coastline of Scotch Cap on Unimak Island. Sand Bay, near Adak, reported 26-foot waves inundated its shores.