3 Quakes Cause Minor Damage, No Injuries in Alaska Peninsula

Three strong earthquakes shook pictures off walls and knocked cans off shelves in the sparsely populated Alaska Peninsula, but no injuries or significant damage was reported, officials said Sunday.

Tom Sokolowski, head of the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, said the first quake Saturday was the strongest, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale.

“We had another one about 10 minutes later that went 5.5 and the last one, about 20 minutes after that, was measured at 4.5,” Sokolowski said. “Those were significant earthquakes, but there was no damage of any kind other than knocking some things over.”

The first temblor was centered 100 miles southeast of Cold Bay and was felt strongly in King Cove, Cold Bay, Sand Point, False Pass and Port Moller, officials said.

Cannery Affected

“At False Pass, it knocked some pictures off the wall, that sort of thing,” Sokolowski said. “We received a call from a seafood cannery and they told us they had some items shaken off their shelves.”

A police dispatcher at Sand Point, about 560 miles southwest of Anchorage, said the quakes gave that island community a good jolt, but there were no signs of any major structural damage.

“Most of them (residents) were out on their fishing boats when it happened, so at least the timing was good,” the dispatcher said.

Can Cause Damage

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale can cause severe damage in a populated area.

The Richter scale is a measure of ground motion recorded on seismographs. Every increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude.

The 1964 Alaska quake that killed 114 people measured 8.5 on the Richter scale. It was the strongest earthquake recorded in North America.