Some Nome residents took to Facebook late last week mentioning that they had felt an earthquake. They were right. According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Seward Peninsula early Saturday morning.
The quake’s epicenter was 22 miles deep and about 100 miles north of Nome.
Natalia Ruppert, a seismologist at the Alaska Earthquake Center, says earthquakes in this region are rare, but a 4.8 earthquake is not uncommon, historically. It’s hard for the center to tell if this earthquake is a predictor of further activity. At the moment, they have only seen several smaller aftershocks. The center has not observed any active aftershock sequences or tectonic earthquake swarms, either. That means the quake was lacking any indicators of greater future seismic activity.
Ruppert says an earthquake of this size will not usually cause any strong ground shake or structural damage. She encourages western Alaskans to be aware that the region does get earthquakes. And she urges residents of western Alaska to have a plan in case a bigger earthquake ever hits the region in the future.
