A magnitude-6 earthquake rattled Alaskans across Southcentral on Thursday morning, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. No major damage was immediately reported.
The quake struck at 8:11 a.m., with an epicenter 37 miles northwest of Anchorage and a depth of 45 miles.
“I think it’s important to keep in mind how deep it was,” said Mike West, the state seismologist and director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. “So, even if you were directly on the ground above it, you were still 45 miles away. This is a type of earthquake that we expect in that area.”
Alaskans across Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Kenai Peninsula reported feeling strong, prolonged shaking. The earthquake center said people felt it as far away as Fairbanks.
West said the actual ground rupture was “over in a matter of seconds,” but that people might have felt shaking for anywhere from a few seconds to tens of seconds.
He said this earthquake is not an aftershock of the magnitude 7.1 Anchorage quake in November of 2018. Thursday’s quake is similar, though, since it is a response to the same plate tectonics that drove that earthquake.
West said to expect small aftershocks over the next weeks or months, and that anyone experiencing damage or major impacts can report them to the Alaska Earthquake Center.
“We’ve not heard of any significant damage yet,” West said. “I would fully anticipate a little bit of cracked drywall here and there, and I won’t be surprised if we hear of other incidents, but my expectation would be pretty minor damage.”
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities also said in a social media post that it would inspect infrastructure, including roads and bridges, for any earthquake damage, but that it currently didn’t anticipate any impact to travel. Updates will be shared via social media and on the department’s website.