Alaska had a relatively quiet 2024 as far as numbers of seismic events, but several earthquake swarms kept things interesting. Even a “quiet” year, however, keeps the Earthquake Center busy:
Mid-day on Sunday, December 8, 2024, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake was recorded southwest of Atka Island in the western Aleutians (Figure 1). The earthquake triggered interest because of its significant size.
October earthquake uptick south of Kaktovik
In early October, we detected a notable increase in earthquake activity about 50 miles south of Kaktovik in the northeastern corner of Alaska (Figure 1).
2023 Seismicity Year in Review
When Alaska has less than 50,000 earthquakes in a given year, we consider it quiet. 2023 was a quiet year for Alaska, with the Alaska Earthquake Center reporting 45,546 seismic events in Alaska and neighboring regions (Figure 1).
Earthquakes reported in Alaska so far this year: 5925