6.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

February 2014 – ALASKA – A 6.1 earthquake shook the Alaska communities of Nikolski and Unalaska Wednesday, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. The strong shake occurred around noon in the Bering Sea region of the state. The center says the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 and was located at a depth of 23 miles. The towns, located near the mid-section of the arc of the Aleutian Islands stretching more than 1,000 miles toward Asia, reportedly didn’t suffer any damages. Quakes with magnitudes of about 4.5 or greater are strong enough to be recorded by sensitive seismographs worldwide. Great earthquakes, such as Alaska’s 1964 Good Friday earthquake, have magnitudes of 8.0 or higher. The U.S. Geological Survey says that on average, one earthquake of that size occurs somewhere in the world each year. –AD