ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Aftershocks continue to rattle residents of Alaska’s largest city two months after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake caused damage in and around the Anchorage area.

The Alaska Earthquake Center says the latest aftershock occurred just after 11 a.m. Wednesday. The magnitude 4.1 temblor was located about 14 northwest of Anchorage and was recorded at a depth of about 24 miles.

It was felt in the great Anchorage area, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The centre confirmed it was an aftershock of the larger quake on Nov. 30. </s> Two aftershocks centered in roughly the same area shook Southcentral Alaska late Wednesday morning within a half hour.

The first aftershock, with a reviewed magnitude of 4.1, struck at 11:04 a.m. 13 miles northwest of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

It was the largest aftershock in just over two weeks.

A second, smaller quake, centered a few miles south of the first, followed 23 minutes later with a reviewed magnitude of 3.7.

Reviewed magnitude is 3.7 as well. Larger red dot is the M4.1 at 11:04am, smaller is the M3.7 at 11:27am. pic.twitter.com/Bialwthjnk — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) February 6, 2019

Both epicenters were located at the southern end of a 20-mile-long “fault patch,” roughly underneath Point MacKenzie. More than 8,000 aftershocks have originated there since the Nov. 30 main shock.

Both quakes also struck at a similar depth. The earthquake center estimates the first hit about 26 miles down, while the second was 21 miles. </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake shook southern Alaska on Friday morning, buckling roads, disrupting traffic and jamming telephone lines in and around Anchorage, the state’s largest city, but there were no reports of injuries.

The 7.0 magnitude quake struck about 8 miles (13 km) north of Anchorage, a city of 300,000 residents accounting for about 40 percent of Alaska’s population, and was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

Roads and bridges appeared to have been hardest hit, but Anchorage was otherwise largely spared from major structural damage, authorities said. Power outages and disruption of phone service was widespread.

“We did have a couple of reports of buildings collapses,” Fire Chief Jodie Hettrick told reporters about three hours after the quake, adding that three structure fires also were reported, though details were not immediately available.

“The fact that we went through something this significant with this minimal amount of damage says that we’re a very well prepared community, that our building codes and our building professionals have done a terrific job,” Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said.

The initial quake produced strong shaking within a 30-mile (50 km) radius of its epicenter, with ground movement felt as far away as Fairbanks, 250 miles to the north as the crow flies, and Kodiak, roughly the same distance to the south, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

“Thought the house was going to come apart,” Anchorage-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider wrote on Twitter, posting a photo showing his kitchen floor scattered with items that tumbled out of cupboards.

A tsunami warning was issued for Cook Inlet, linking Anchorage with the Gulf of Alaska, but was later canceled.

The Trans Alaska Pipeline, which carries crude oil 800 miles (1,300 km) from Alaska’s North Slope to the marine terminal at Valdez, was shut down for about seven hours as a precaution, but no damage to the system was detected, said a spokeswoman for the operator, Aleyska Pipeline Service Co.

The quake occurred nearly 27 miles (43 km) beneath the surface, apparently on an unnamed fault line, or fissure, inside a portion of the Earth’s crust known as Pacific plate where it bends underneath the North American plate, USGS geophysicist Brian Kilgore told Reuters.

“This is kind of an odd quake,” he said, adding that only 15 or 16 quakes of magnitude 6 or greater have been recorded during the past century in the same region of Alaska.

Morning rush-hour traffic in Anchorage came to a standstill and jammed up heading out of town after the quake struck at around 8:30 a.m. (1230 EST/1730 GMT).

“We have been through earthquakes in the past. This one was different. This was very, very scary, damage that we don’t fully understand,” Walker said in a video statement from outside a National Guard armory command center.

President Donald Trump declared a federal emergency, ordering U.S. government assistance in the earthquake response and authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts, the White House said.

Strong earthquakes are not uncommon in seismically active Alaska but tend to occur in remote, sparsely populated regions.

Alaska has recorded earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 7 to 8 at least once a year on average since 1900, according to the state government website. Southern Alaska was hit by a devastating 9.2 tremor in 1964, the second most powerful earthquake on record.

A photo posted by a reporter at television station KTVA showed a deserted newsroom, with scattered debris and a partially collapsed ceiling. CNN reported that TV station KTUU, an NBC affiliate, also was knocked off the air.

KTUU’s website featured a photo of a snow-covered highway that had buckled, with a car sitting between two deep fissures crossing the highway.

The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport remained open, but arrivals and departure ramps were closed and there were reports of road damage, the airport said on Twitter.

The city’s schools were evacuated and parents were notified to pick up their children. </s> (UPI) — Parts of Alaska and Canada braced for more aftershocks after two major earthquakes rattled the region on Monday.

The first earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck about 60 miles northwest of Haines, Alaska, and was felt across hundreds of miles of southeast Alaska and northwest Canada.

“it was a pretty good little roller,” said Tim Holm, a Haines Borough emergency medical technician, and firefighter. “It pretty much woke up the whole town.”

The second, less than two hours later, registered a magnitude of 6.3 in nearly the same location, the Alaska Earthquake Center said. No damage was reported.

There have been 13,676 earthquakes reported in Alaska this year, the AEC said.

Seismologist Natalia Ruppert put the quakes’ epicenters in British Columbia and warned “pretty strong” aftershocks are expected. The biggest recorded so far was a magnitude 4.7

Michael West, a seismologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said both earthquakes were the same magnitude as ones that killed 250 people in Italy last August.

“A 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 magnitude quake like this one, it’s scary as hell if you’re right on top of it,” he said. “People need to be respectful of a quake this size.” </s> Alaska is now beginning to survey the damage of powerful back-to-back earthquakes that struck the area around Anchorage on Friday, an event that resulted in damage to buildings, roads, and other infrastructure. Speaking with reporters following the quake, Alaska Governor Bill Walker said that resulting disruption and needed repairs could last “quite some time.”

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck around 8:29 a.m. local time followed by ensuing, smaller earthquakes. Citing United States Geological Survey research geophysicist Gavin Hayes, CNN reported Saturday that “a magnitude-5.2 aftershock about 11 p.m. Friday was the second-biggest event since a magnitude-5.7 temblor hit minutes after the main quake.” Despite earthquakes being common in the area, Friday’s event was still significant.

“This is a very earthquake-prone region. Much more so than California,” climatologist Brian Brettschneider told Gizmodo by email. “That said, it’s been over 50 years since an earthquake this strong was felt in Anchorage. The good news is that most of Anchorage was built, or rebuilt, after the great 1964 Earthquake (M9.2). That means very strict building codes.”

He also noted that there were no injuries or fatalities, adding: “If you had to be in a city of over [a quarter of a million] people and have an M7 earthquake hit, this is the best place to be.”

Videos shared on social media captured widespread damage across Anchorage and the surrounding area. One video shared by Brettschneider on Twitter captured drone footage of cracks in ice at Anchorage’s Waldron Lake. According to Brettschneider, the ice was 8 inches thick.

Nat Herz, a reporter for Alaska Public Media, told NPR that he was sitting at a coffee shop in Anchorage when he “just felt like sort of a rumble or a buzz.”



“But then things kind of got louder, and things started really shaking and shaking hard. And people were kind of looking around,” he told NPR. “And then I think, you know, someone went for the door, and everyone else went for the door. And, you know, everyone kind of hurried outside. And kind of once things settled down, everyone went back in.”

At least two highways were closed down following the earthquake, with local CBS affiliate KTVA reporting that area’s Glenn Highway endured significant damage that included a “massive sinkhole.” Power losses also reportedly affected tens of thousands of people following the initial earthquake.

Governor Walker said in a phone interview Friday that there’s a possibility that some infrastructure damage could take weeks or months to repair, especially given the winter season. Walker also said he spoke with President Donald Trump, after which call KTVA reported the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved assistance for the area.

“It’s going to be a disruption for quite some time,” Walker said. “We’ve been on the phone with the White House a number of times today [and] took a call from President Trump. They talked about their desire to help us, and we appreciate that very much.”

According to Alaska Public Media, schools in the area are expected to be closed until at least Wednesday of next week.
Two aftershocks strike Anchorage, Alaska, the first a magnitude 4.1, and the second a magnitude 3.7, occurring 23 minutes later.