"People who were outside were actively hugging each other," he said. But it is rare for a quake this big to strike so close to such a heavily populated area.ĭavid Harper was getting some coffee at a store when the low rumble began and intensified into something that sounded "like the building was just going to fall apart." He ran for the exit with other patrons.
Southern Alaska has a high risk of earthquakes because the Earth's plates slide past each other under the region.Īlaska has been hit by a number of powerful quakes over 7.0 in recent decades, including a 7.9 last January southeast of Kodiak Island. The state averages 40,000 earthquakes a year, with more large quakes than the 49 other states combined. It and the tsunami it triggered claimed about 130 lives. The 9.2-magnitude quake on March 27, 1964, was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Anchorage. Everything that's not tied down is broke."Īlaska was the site of the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the U.S. "There's no pictures left on the walls, there's no power, there's no fish tank left. He grabbed it and put it in another bowl. Slaton ran into his son's room after the shaking stopped and found his fish tank shattered and the fish on the floor, gasping. His 120-pound mastiff panicked and tried to run down the stairs, but the house was swaying so much that the dog was thrown off its feet and into a wall and tumbled to the base of the stairs, Slaton said. Slaton, who weighs 209 pounds, said it created a powerful back-and-forth sloshing that threw him out of the tub. In Kenai, southwest of Anchorage, Brandon Slaton was alone at home and soaking in the bathtub when the earthquake struck. Because there were none, they canceled the warning within about an hour and a half. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Alaska on Friday shook buildings, damaged highways and prompted a tsunami warning that was later canceled.
Scientists monitored gauges to see if the quake generated big waves. Michael Burgy, a senior technician with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said the warning was automatically generated based on the quake's size and proximity to shore.
People were told to evacuate to higher ground immediately because a wave could hit within about 10 minutes. Police in Kodiak, a city of 6,100 people on Kodiak Island, 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Anchorage).
#Alaska quake 7.0 series
A series of smaller aftershocks followed.Ī tsunami warning was issued along Alaska's southern coast. People went back inside after the first earthquake struck, but the 5.7 aftershock about five minutes later sent them running back into the streets.
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