Powerful earthquakes continue in Alaska’s Aleutians; no tsunami alert

Powerful quakes continue in Aleutians

PALMER, Alaska — Strong aftershocks continue to follow a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck a remote area of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Earthquake monitors said there were no immediate reports of injury or damage from any in the series of quakes that began Thursday night and continued Friday afternoon. No tsunami warnings were issued.

An unrelated earthquake with a 4.5 magnitude occurred at 9 a.m. Friday morning in the Kodiak Island region about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.

State seismologist Roger Hansen, director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, says the quake was nearly 1,000 miles from the other earthquakes. It was felt in Anchorage, Kodiak and Homer, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The U.S. Geologic Survey said the 6.4 Aleutians quake was recorded at Thursday evening and was centered in the sea about 60 miles southeast of Adak and about 1,180 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Over the next hour, quakes struck with magnitudes of 6.1, 5.3 and 4.6. All were centered in the same area as the larger quake. The aftershocks continued Friday with magnitudes of 5.2 and 4.8, with at least the larger one being felt in Adak.

Hansen said there have been many more smaller aftershocks connected with the large quake.

The sparsely populated region is frequently hit by large quakes, which often go almost unnoticed by villagers on remote islands.

In July, a magnitude-6.7 quake struck in the area but caused no problems. It was followed by as many as two dozen strong aftershocks.

Two quakes measuring about 6.0-magnitude rumbled under the Bering Sea off Alaska in May but were too far from land to be felt.