{"id":18469,"date":"2025-07-18T08:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/18469\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T08:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:24:10","slug":"why-the-magnitude-7-3-earthquake-in-alaska-was-notable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/18469\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the magnitude 7.3 earthquake in Alaska was notable"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 Wednesday\u2019s magnitude 7.3 earthquake off Alaska\u2019s Aleutian Islands chain struck in a region that has experienced a handful of powerful quakes within the last five years \u2014 including one that shook communities almost exactly two years earlier<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Officials said Thursday they had received no reports of injuries or major damage from the latest event<\/a>, which triggered a tsunami warning that lasted about an hour before being downgraded and prompted communities along a 700-mile (1,127-km) stretch of Alaska\u2019s southern coast to urge people to move to higher ground. The official maximum wave height at Sand Point, a community 55 miles (88 kilometers) north of the epicenter, was about 3.9 inches (10 centimeters), said Kara Sterling, a lead duty scientist at the National Tsunami Warning Center. It occurred at low tide.<\/p>\n

Earthquake sparked tsunami warnings<\/p>\n

The earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m. local time, prompting the center\u2019s tsunami warning. <\/p>\n

There are a number of ways people in warning areas can receive notifications, including the sounding of sirens in communities that have them, listening to weather radio or public radio broadcasts<\/a>, following official accounts on social media, or via push alerts on cellphones. In some places, local officials have relayed warnings door to door, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state\u2019s emergency management division. <\/p>\n

Public safety departments in King Cove and Unalaska sent alerts urging those in coastal areas or those that could see inundation to seek higher ground. <\/p>\n

The warning issued by the center was downgraded to an advisory before being canceled around 2:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

Alaska is one of world\u2019s most seismically active regions <\/p>\n

Alaska is the most earthquake-prone state in the U.S. and one of the most seismically active regions in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The state experiences a magnitude 7 earthquake almost annually, and the second-largest earthquake ever recorded was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Anchorage, the agency said. That 1964 magnitude 9.2 earthquake \u2014 and the tsunami it triggered \u2014 killed about 130 people.<\/p>\n

The Aleutian arc is no stranger to earthquakes, but the activity in the region where Wednesday\u2019s earthquake struck has gotten scientists\u2019 attention. The area, within a few hundred miles of the earthquake, has \u201clit up\u201d since 2020, with Wednesday\u2019s earthquake marking the fifth exceeding magnitude 7.0 since 2020<\/a>, said state seismologist Michael West.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not call this an isolated earthquake. It appears to be part of a larger sequence spanning the last several years,\u201d he said. But West added: \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to be alarmist about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

People should continue to heed warnings, officials say<\/p>\n

Some communities have buildings designated on higher ground as meetup points during tsunami warnings, such as a school, while others might simply urge residents to retreat up a hillside, Zidek said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat area of Alaska, most areas of Alaska, it gets steep real quick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the only warning one might have is the shaking ground, Zidek said. \u201cIf it shakes violently for 20 seconds or more, that is your warning sign, and you should head to higher ground if you\u2019re in a coastal area,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Zidek and West said people should continue to heed warnings. West said he worries about a \u201cburnout effect\u201d among residents in the region, some of whom have evacuated numerous times since 2018 in response to larger earthquakes that have not caused significant damage.<\/p>\n

West said he is reminded of a magnitude 8.6 earthquake in 1946 \u2014 west of the location of Wednesday\u2019s quake \u2014 that generated a deadly tsunami and led to the creation of a U.S. tsunami warning system. The death toll included more than 150 people in Hawaii, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis area is capable of trans-Pacific tsunamis, and I feel like maybe the best way to stay vigilant … is maybe to look into our deeper history beyond just the last five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 Wednesday\u2019s magnitude 7.3 earthquake off Alaska\u2019s Aleutian Islands chain struck in a region that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[14892,3292,23,1687,1685,14890,793,14897,14895,1682,3,79,14889,795,21,19,22,20,25,24,965],"class_list":["post-18469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-ak-state-wire","tag-alaska","tag-america","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-earthquakes","tag-general-news","tag-jeremy-zidek","tag-michael-west","tag-natural-disasters","tag-news","tag-science","tag-tsunamis","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}