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6.9-magnitude earthquake off Alaska is aftershock of July’s 8.2 quake

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
                                A strong earthquake struck the Alaska peninsula Sunday night but does not pose a tsunami threat to Hawaii.
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U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

A strong earthquake struck the Alaska peninsula Sunday night but does not pose a tsunami threat to Hawaii.

JUNEAU, Alaska >> A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on Sunday at 11:10 p.m. Hawaii time in what the Alaska Earthquake Center called an aftershock of an 8.2 quake from late July.

Today’s earthquake was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

“Based on all available data a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin following the quake.

It occurred about 70 miles east of Chignik, a community of about 90 people on the Alaska Peninsula. Chignik is about 450 miles southwest of Anchorage and 260 miles southwest of Kodiak.

The center had not received reports of significant damage but also relies on self-reporting, said seismologist Natalia Ruppert. Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for Alaska’s emergency management office, said the office was contacting communities and had no reports of damage so far.

The U.S. Geological Survey on Twitter had reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 that was later revised to 6.9, which ties another earthquake that hit Alaska in August.

The two 6.9 quakes were the largest aftershocks tallied since the United States experienced its largest earthquake in the past half-century, the magnitude 8.2 quake that struck south of the Alaska Peninsula on July 28. It was widely felt but caused no major damage in the sparsely populated region closest to it. The earthquake center at the time said it was the biggest quake in the U.S. since a magnitude 8.7 earthquake in the Aleutians in 1965.

Ruppert said aftershocks from the July earthquake could continue for “many, many more months.”

She said the region is seismically active, and it’s not unexpected for such a large quake to have aftershocks greater than a magnitude 6.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser contributed to this report.

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