Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes near Alaska–Canada border

A major magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near the Alaska–Canada border, according to preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Several aftershocks have been recorded.

The earthquake occurred at 11:41 a.m. local time on Saturday at a depth of 6.2 miles, according to the USGS. Its epicenter was in a remote region about 56 miles north of Yakutat, Alaska, and roughly 154 miles west of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory.

Shaking was reported as far away as Anchorage and Juneau, as well as in multiple communities across the Yukon, according to user-submitted reports collected by the USGS. Most accounts described light shaking, and there were no reports of strong shaking near the sparsely populated epicentral area.

“I’m in Anchorage and felt a very slight swaying,” one person wrote in a report to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). “My hanging plants swung a good couple circles. Crazy! I’m 700 miles away.”

Several moderate aftershocks have followed, including a magnitude 5.6 that struck about five minutes after the main event.

The region along the Alaska–Canada border lies within one of North America’s most active seismic zones, where the Pacific Plate moves northwest against the North American Plate, according to the USGS. Much of this motion is accommodated along the Queen Charlotte–Fairweather fault system, a major boundary capable of producing large earthquakes.