Alaska Earthquake Center

Seismic signals come from everywhere! This recently published study reveals the winter soundscape of Alaska's Parks Highway corridor. Planes, trains, and automobiles. And yes, earthquakes. The 2nd image shows signals of mining blasts (t=15 & 87 sec) and cars (t= 65 & 135 sec). https://bit.ly/4v4520C

Over the past week, we recorded about 500 earthquakes. The largest was a magnitude 4.6 on June 6th in the western Aleutian islands. Five earthquakes were reported felt.
It’s summertime, so the field team has swung into high gear. About half of the 254 sites that the Alaska Earthquake Center maintains are in hard-to-reach locations throughout the state. We headed out last week with field operations manager Carolyn Parcheta to offer you a glimpse into what it’s like to troubleshoot one of these remote stations.
Site M11K is not quite our westernmost station, but it’s close. The hardest part of this work is getting to the station, situated just outside the village of Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island. The area is persistently overcast, with frequent fog, dampness, and strong winds, and temperatures never top 60 degrees.
Seismic data reaches the Earthquake Center in Fairbanks via cellular modem that connects to the town’s cell network. On this visit, we swapped out the station’s modem. On first try, the power light blinks green, but the signal and strength are red. After reconfiguring the network settings, we test the signal again. We ping the cell modem, and—success!
This site has literally weathered the seasons, and the borehole seismometer has been frost-jacked 6 feet out of the ground. In a future year, it may need a major overhaul to continue relaying reliable data from this far-flung outpost.
You can “visit” any of our seismic stations through the Network Map page https://earthquake.alaska.edu/network on our website. Each site page has a 24-hour and 4-day view of seismic signals from that spot.

We have reviewed a magnitude 3.0 event that occurred last night at 12:25 AM AK time. This event was located 18 miles NW of Anchorage and 28 miles deep.

This event was reported felt in Wasilla and Anchorage.

For more information, please visit

Anchorage M3.0 | Alaska Earthquake Center The University of Alaska is an equal opportunity/equal access employer and educational institution. The University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination against individuals on the basis of any legally protected status.

We have reviewed a magnitude 3.8 event that occurred at 02:12 PM AK time. This event was located 31 miles SE of Skwentna and 18 miles deep.

This event was reported felt throughout Southcentral Alaska.

For more information, please visit

Willow M3.8 | Alaska Earthquake Center The University of Alaska is an equal opportunity/equal access employer and educational institution. The University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination against individuals on the basis of any legally protected status.

! What does it take to service 6 stations around Bethel in 6 days? It starts with planning, then flying to Bethel. Picking up and loading a lot of gear. Flying over incredible Alaska scenery. The first remote site on our list was P17K, by the Kvichak River not far from Dillingham. We swapped out the pressure-temperature unit in the weather sensor. Then came the comms upgrade -- when a new cell modem received no signal, a Starlink mini became the newest gadget at this station. Signal is loud and clear!

Check out this great SeattleMet profile of Earthquake Center alum Natalia Ruppert, who is now applying her amazing seismology expertise as the Earthquake Early Warning Program Coordinator for the US Geological Survey's ShakeAlert System.

The Scientist Who Is the First to Catch Earthquakes Natalia Ruppert thinks ShakeAlert can save lives.

We know it was a few hours ago, but if you felt a slight shaking near Homer this morning around 11am, it's not your imagination..

This magnitude 3.4 event occurred at 10:50 AM AK time. It was 22 miles SE of Homer and 23 miles deep.

More info here:

Seldovia M3.4 | Alaska Earthquake Center The University of Alaska is an equal opportunity/equal access employer and educational institution. The University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination against individuals on the basis of any legally protected status.

What’s Shaking Alaska?! Welcome to your seismic update from across the state, brought to you by the Alaska Earthquake Center.

In 2016, colleagues in the Engineering department approached the Earthquake Center with an intriguing idea: adding seismometers for structural monitoring in the Usibelli Engineering Learning and Innovation Building. We installed seismometers in 2017, from the basement to the fifth story, as the building was being completed.

While instrumenting tall buildings isn’t a new practice, the engineering building is the only structure in Interior Alaska with seismometers at several levels. Other instrumented buildings in Alaska include the 20-story Atwood Building in Anchorage, and the Anchorage Museum.

The sensors measure how much shaking occurs on different floors. Typical of tall buildings, sensors on the lower floors detect the motion of the earth itself. Sensors higher up record the additional side-to-side swaying of the building caused by earthquakes.

During a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in 2024, the earthquake “kicked” the engineering building into resonating, like kicking a signpost.

The basement sensor showed a strong pulse lasting a few seconds. As the oscillation traveled up the building, it created swaying felt for many seconds. The fifth floor had the strongest and longest shaking, consistent with what people often report in tall buildings.

Learn more on earthquake.alaska.edu.

We have reviewed a magnitude 5.6 event that occurred at 04:25 PM AK time. This event was located 41 miles SE of Adak and 14 miles deep.
No reports of the event being felt have been received at this time.

For more information, please visit

Atka Pass M5.6 | Alaska Earthquake Center The Aleutian Arc marks the region where the Pacific Plate subducts into the mantle beneath the North American Plate. It is a seismically active region, evidenced by the thousands of earthquakes occurring each year. Since 1900, this region has hosted several major megathrust earthquakes, including th...