6.2 magnitude earthquake shakes Alaska: USGS
According to the USGS and media reports, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Alaska on Thursday.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Alaska on Thursday and was felt in the largest city Anchorage, the US Geological Survey and social media reported.
There were no immediate reports of major damage, although the epicenter of the quake was in a relatively rural area.
No alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Alert Warning Center after the quake, which struck about 80 miles northwest of Anchorage, according to the USGS and media reports.
"There was just a major earthquake and my building was shaking and my ceiling tiles fell," tweeted @marcus_the_don, while @kcgrove added: "Wow. Big quake. At least it felt big on the 6th floor of the #Anchorage courthouse."
The quake struck shortly before 10:00 am local time (1800 GMT). It was initially estimated at a magnitude of 6.1.
It was at a depth of 101.7 kilometers (63 miles), which was likely to limit damage, experts said.
"This was quite deep, so I wouldn t expect any serious damage," seismologist Natalia Ruppert of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center told the Alaska Dispatch News.
"Deep earthquakes normally don t produce as many aftershocks as shallow earthquakes, so there will be some aftershocks, but I don t expect there to be too many," she added.
Some Anchorage residents ran out of their houses.
"I grabbed my five-month-old daughter and ran outside without shoes," Connie Beemer told the newspaper. "There were a handful of other neighbors who also chose to rather risk the sky falling than our houses."
Alaska, which is on the Rim of Fire, a seismically fragile zone that surrounds the Pacific Ocean, is used to earthquakes. In June a 7.9-magnitude quake triggered a local tsunami alert in a remote section of the US Aleutian Islands.
A 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook an area in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Alaska in January last year.
On Thursday, a press conference being given by a US Senate candidate Dan Sullivan was interrupted by the quake, and the building was briefly evacuated.
"Welcome to Alaska," he joked to his audience, according to the Dispatch News.
