Strong quake shakes Alaska, no tsunami warning

WASHINGTON DC, USA (UPDATED) – A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook a lightly populated remote region of southwestern Alaska late Friday, April 1, the US Geological Survey that monitors quakes worldwide reported.

The quake struck at 0550 GMT Saturday (9:50 pm Friday) on the Aleutian arc some 654 kilometers (406 miles) southwest of Anchorage, and 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Chignik Lake, Alaska. 

The National Tsunami Warning Center said that no watch, warning or advisory would be issued for the quake.

“A tsunami is NOT expected to be generated by this earthquake,” the Center said.

The earthquake epicenter was 58 miles below the surface, the Alaska Earthquake Center reported.

The Aleutian arc, part of the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, extends some 3,000 kilometers from the Gulf of Alaska to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

The arc “marks the region where the Pacific plate subducts into the mantle beneath the North America plate,” the USGS said on its website.

Since 1900 there have been 12 earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 and above in the Aleutian arc, the USGS said. 

The most powerful quake was the 9.2 magnitude Prince William Sound earthquake – the second most powerful quake ever recorded – on March 28, 1964.

It devastated Anchorage, Alaska’s main city  located about 120 kilometers northwest of the epicenter and also unleashed a devastating tsunami that slammed the Gulf of Alaska, the US west coast, and Hawaii.

More than 250 people were killed by the quake and the tsunami. – Rappler.com