7.2 Quake Hits Alaska's Aleutian Islands

Anchorage, Alaska
Associated Press
December 19, 2007

A large earthquake rattled Alaska's seismically active Aleutian Islands, but there were no immediate reports of any damages or injuries.

The magnitude 7.2 quake struck at 11:30 p.m. local time Tuesday and was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of the island of Adak, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.

(See map.)

A dispatcher with the Anchorage Police Department said he didn't feel the quake, some 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) away, and there were no reports of injuries or damages.

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 islands that extend southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean.

A tsunami warning was canceled early Wednesday for Alaska's coasts, after officials determined waves from the earthquake posed no widespread destructive threat.

The earth's most active seismic feature, the Circum-Pacific seismic belt, brushes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, where more earthquakes occur than in the other 49 U.S. states combined.

Andreanof Island sustained a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in March 1957 that caused very severe damage on Adak and Unimak Islands. A damaging tsunami was generated, and a wall of water 40 feet (12 kilometers) high smashed the coastline of Scotch Cap on Unimak Island. Sand Bay, near Adak, reported 26-foot (8-meter) waves inundating its shores after the event 50 years ago.

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