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Remember learning
about "plate tectonics" in school? Well, Alaska is
constantly responding to this nearly incomprehensible movement. The Pacific Plate is moving
northwestwardly under
the North American Plate at a rate of approximately 2 1/2 inches per
year. The result is many fault lines and earthquakes throughout the
state, every day. Did you know that there are an average of 50-100
earthquakes in Alaska, daily! In fact, Alaska has more earthquakes per year
than all the other states combined.
While many quakes
occur within the Interior of Alaska, most occur throughout the Aleutian
Islands chain, which directly follows the plate lines. A clear picture of this
can be seen in the Google map below:
View Larger Map
Three of the six
largest recorded quakes in the world were in Alaska The largest of those was the
earthquake that occurred in March of 1964. With a magnitude of 9.2, it
went down in the records as the second largest quake in the world. The
photo at the top of this page shows a remnant just south of Anchorage of that mighty earthquake.
Thankfully, due to the low population at that time, the
death toll was fairly low. However, the damage was upward
towards 400 million dollars (using the dollar valuation of that time).
Click here for pictures of the
devastation caused by this great quake.
Earthquakes over
magnitude 8.0 occur, on average, every thirteen years or so in Alaska.
However, no one can ever be certain of when or where the next great earthquake
will find them. It is important for all Alaskans to be aware of
this and to be prepared and informed. For information on earthquake
preparedness
click here.
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