Juneau experienced a 5.0 magnitude earthquake at 8:32 p.m. Saturday night, but no damage was reported.
The epicenter was located more than 60 miles northwest of Juneau at a depth of less than a mile. This earthquake was the largest of more than half a dozen earthquakes centered in the same region in the last month, according to data provided by the United States Geological Survey. The other earthquakes, all centered 45 miles west of Haines, were less than 3.0 magnitude.
“I felt it! I was in my driveway and my vehicle was shaking,” Capital City Fire/Rescue Assistant Chief Travis Mead told the Empire. “I thought my kid was doing it.”
Mead said CCFR did not receive any reports of damage or injury from the quake.
“We didn’t get any calls,” he said Monday. “Just the way we like it.”
The Juneau Police Department did not receive any such reports either, according to the dispatch center.
Southeast Alaska is no stranger to powerful earthquakes. According to USGS data, there have been more than 20 earthquakes as strong or stronger than the quake Saturday in the last three decades.
Alaska was also unwilling host to the second-most powerful earthquake in recorded history, a magnitude 9.2 “Good Friday” earthquake that shattered Anchorage in 1964.
All these earthquakes come from interaction between the Pacific Plate and North American Plate, part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ around the Pacific Ocean that’s home to the vast majority of the world’s earthquakes and volcanoes.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 523-2271 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
