Tag Archives: Alaska

Major earthquake in southern Alaska felt for hundreds of miles

JUNEAU, Alaska (Reuters) – A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck remote southern Alaska early on Sunday, unleashing shudders felt several hundred miles from the tremor’s lakefront epicenter at the far end of Cook Inlet from Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

No injuries were reported, but several neighborhoods in the town of Kenai – roughly halfway between the quake’s center and Anchorage – were temporarily evacuated after a gas explosion damaged four homes several hours later, a city spokesman said.

As of Sunday night, local utility company Enstar was still investigating whether the earthquake triggered a gas leak believed to have caused the blast, company spokesman John Sims said.

There were also reports of brief power outages in Anchorage, about 160 miles southwest of the epicenter, and cities immediately to the north and south.

The quake, initially reported at a 7.3 magnitude, struck at 1:30 a.m. about 30 miles east-southeast of Pedro Bay on the shore of Iliamna Lake, at the foot of a mountain chain just west of Cook Inlet, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The quake was felt as far away as Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon Territory more than 600 miles east of Anchorage, according to the USGS.

It was recorded 79 miles beneath the surface, a depth that helped keep damage to a minimum, said Dara Merz, a research technician with the Alaska Earthquake Center in Fairbanks.

“If you take into account how deep it was, that’s a lot of earth and rock that seismic waves have to work through to get to the surface,” Merz said.

The Fairbanks agency reported a series of aftershocks reaching magnitudes of up to 4.7, though Merz said even larger tremors could follow.

Alaska, a seismically active state, records anywhere from 80 to 100 quakes daily, most of them hardly ever noticed. One of the more powerful quakes to hit Alaska in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude temblor that struck beneath the ocean floor near the Aleutian Islands chain in June 2014, but it caused no injuries or major damage.

Following Sunday’s quake, jittery Anchorage residents and hotel guests who briefly fled their buildings took to social media sites to share their experiences. Some posted photos of stores with aisles littered by fallen merchandise knocked off shelves to the floor.

The quake produced no tsunami threat, according to the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

(Reporting from Juneau by Steve Quinn; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Hogue)

3-Year-Old Starts Movement to Help Homeless Community

Compassion is not an emotion reserved for adults and three year old Patrick McClung from Anchorage, Alaska is the perfect example.  

According to local news station KTVA,  Patrick broke down in tears back in October when his mother, Destinee McClung, explained to him what being homeless means.

“Everyone he knows has a house and has food and has toys,” McClung said. “And so it really genuinely hurt his heart to kind of realize that there are people that go without.”

He even cried over the matter, saying through tears in an emotional video McClung posted to her Facebook page that, “I don’t want them to sleep on a piece of cardboard.”

ABC News reported that Patrick was so affected by what he had learned that he put his hurt into action. The 3-year-old and his mother have set up donation boxes around town, collecting clothing and toiletries for homeless people.  

People have been eagerly donating to Patrick’s project with blankets, socks and other cold-weather apparel, to hygiene-related items like shampoo, conditioner, soap and diapers.  The toddler himself has gone to great lengths to donate, selling his beloved trains so he could buy items for those in need.

So far Patrick is proud to show others that he has collected 10 large bags of donations for those that have so little.

“It’s for all the people, and they don’t have homes,” Patrick explained to KTVA, showing off the items. “And they’re very cold.”

In addition to collecting goods for the homeless, the 3-year-old has also started volunteering at a soup kitchen handing out desserts and chatting with people.

China Showing Off Military Might

China is making a demonstration of its military might both through ocean maneuvers and a parade of new technology.

The first major flexing of China’s military muscle came during the incident of ships off the coast of Alaska during a visit by President Obama.  The ships entered US territorial waters for the first time, passing within 12 nautical miles of the Alaskan coast.

US military officials say the ships complied with international law despite their proximity to Alaska.

“They already had one of their icebreakers up in that area, and they weren’t that far away with an exercise, and they’ve already started their return transit,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the military used the anniversary of the ending of World War II to display in a parade a missile that’s designed to take out an aircraft carrier.

The missile, called the Dongfeng DF-21D, is designed to enter space like an intercontinental ballistic missile but the warhead will detach and use radar to target a ship.

“The significance of that weapon is that its warhead, once it detaches from the launching vehicle, is able to slow its descent, turn on a radar seeker, and maneuver to engage a moving ship if it is in the radar “footprint” of the seeker,” Michael McDevitt, a retired United States rear admiral and analyst at CNA Strategic Studies, told the New York Times.

“This is unusual because normally ballistic, by definition, means that once fired, a weapon goes straight to where it was aimed. Heretofore, a ballistic missile with a conventional warhead would not be effective against a moving target because during the time of flight of the missile the target would have moved. The maneuvering warhead is Cold War technology, first introduced as I understand it with the Pershing II land-based missiles Reagan stationed in Europe.”

The missiles have a range of about 900 miles, meaning China could use them to keep American naval vessels out of the South China Sea in the event China attacks Taiwan.

Chinese Warships Operate Near Alaskan Coast for First Time

Five Chinese naval vessels have been spotted operating in the Bering Sea off the Alaskan coast for the first time.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed Pentagon officials saying they haven’t seen the Chinese navy act in this manner until now.

“The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control,” the Journal stated the officials confirmed.

“They said the Chinese ships were still in the area, but declined to specify when the vessels were first spotted or how far they were from the coast of Alaska, where President Barack Obama is winding up a three-day visit.”

“This would be a first in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands. I don’t think we’d characterize anything they’re doing as threatening,” an unnamed defense official told the Washington Free Beacon.

Analysts speculate this is another attempt by China to assert their influence beyond their region.  China’s leader will be in Washington this month to meet with President Obama and the action could be an attempt to show strength before the meetings.

Explosion Reported At Alaskan Volcano

Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported Tuesday a major explosion that rocked the Cleveland Volcano.

The scientists said that the explosion likely produced an ash cloud but that it stayed below 20,000 feet and was not a threat to commercial aircraft.

“We see this quite often and we think that they are associated with some sort of ash production,” U.S. Geological Survey geologist Kristi Wallace said.

The AVO recorded a similar explosion from the Ring of Fire placed volcano last November.

The Cleveland Volcano forms the western part of Chuginadak Island and is about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.

The volcano has been seismically active over the last 14 years, with occasional lava flows and small ash clouds that stay below the 20,000 foot level of concern by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Quakes Shake Oregon, Alaska, Utah

The Fourth of July weekend had more than fireworks shaking things up in Utah, Oregon and Alaska.

Oregon residents started their day out in an unusual way when a 4.2 magnitude quake struck around 8:42 a.m. Saturday.  The quake was centered about 12 miles east of Eugene.

Officials from the Lane County Sheriff’s office and the Oregon Department of Transportation reported no damage being reported.  Residents say that the quake caused some shaking of homes, pictures to fall off walls and wood piles to shift.

In Utah, a 4.0 magnitude quake struck around 10 a.m., 1 mile south of Panguitch or 200 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Panguitch Fire Chief Dave Dodds told the Deseret News the quake lasted between three and four seconds but caused no major damage.

Alaska was the most shaken up with weekend quakes.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported Alaska was shaken by two quakes within one minute.

The first, a 4.9 magnitude quake, struck around 4:49 p.m. about 24 miles southwest of Talkeetna.  The second quake a minute later in the same area was reported at magnitude 5.1.

Also, the Arctic community of Kaktovik in the Arctic Ocean reported a quake around 11:26 a.m. that measured 4.6 according to the USGS.

Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Strikes Earth

A severe geomagnetic storm struck Earth Tuesday morning.

Scientists say the storm is rated as G4 on a scale that has a maximum of G5.  The storm is the strongest to hit the planet during the current 11-year solar cycle.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says the storm could bring voltage control problems at many power systems.  Also electrical systems and devices in areas like Alaska and Canada could be damaged by the intensity of the storm.

The storm could also impact GPS and other satellite based systems throughout the day.

The NWPC says the storm was created by sun activity on March 15th.

The last major storm to strike the planet was January 7th when a G3 rated storm passed over the planet.

Second Alaskan Earthquake in Three Days

Alaska has been shaken by the second earthquake in three days.

A magnitude 5.0 quake struck 10 miles northeast of Minto, Alaska around 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning.  The quake was measured around 10 miles deep.

The quake follows a magnitude 5.1 quake that rattled Interior Alaska on Monday.

Residents say that despite the government saying the quake had a lesser magnitude than Monday’s, the quake felt “stronger and longer” than Monday’s.  A resident in Fairbanks, Alaska said that dishes fell off shelves and others reported objects in their homes damaged because of the quake.

The quakes took place on the same fault that caused more significant earthquakes in the same region this summer.

Alaska, New Zealand Earthquakes May Be Related

A scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey said there is a possibility that a massive earthquake off the Alaskan coast Monday could be connected to an earthquake that struck hours earlier in New Zealand.

A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck shortly after noon pacific time near the largely uninhabited Kermadex Islands, northeast of the country’s North Island.  The quake was followed by an aftershock of 6.3 minutes later.  The Alaskan quake of magnitude 7.9 struck off the Aleutian Islands shortly before 2 p.m. pacific time.

“The timing of it is such that we call the surface waves, the waves that travel around the circumference of the earth, arrived about the time the earthquake occurred,” Oppenheimer said.

However, Oppenheimer said the strength of the Alaskan quake indicates that it would have likely happened within a short time if it was not triggered by the New Zealand quake.

“There is just so much stress relieved within an earthquake of magnitude 7.9,” he said.

The Alaskan quake triggered a small tsunami with waves about half a foot high.  Seismologists attribute the low height to the 63 mile depth of the quake.

New Zealand was hit with a trio of strong quakes Tuesday morning.  Two quakes, magnitude 6.9 and 6.3, struck within minutes of each other.  The third, a 6.2 magnitude quake, struck about 45 minutes later.

Pavlof Volcano Eruption Subsides

The red alert has been downgraded to an orange alert after the eruption of Alaska’s Pavlof volcano has begun to subside.

The orange alert level has been issued because scientists do not know if the mountain will begin to erupt again.

The volcano is just over 8,200 feet tall and is in the flight path of many major international routes.  The most recent eruption shot ash into the air over 30,000 feet but because of wind currents and weather conditions it was not enough to disrupt international travel.

The eruption began May 30th and escalated to peak between June 2nd and 4th.  Volcanologists recorded lava flows and huge ash plumes during the eruption period until the morning of June 6th when activity suddenly declined.

Because of the remote location of the volcano, no injuries were reported.