[quote]When a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the East Coast last week, millions of people felt it. When a 6.8-magnitude quake struck in Alaska's remote Aleutian island chain early Friday, few noticed - though it was about 10 times more powerful.
While earthquakes make the news when they're felt on the East Coast, Alaska has 12,000 a year, more than any other state. Consequently, it's much better prepared.
"They experience a lot of earthquakes out there," said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security. "It's not unusual, and people are used to it."
In Alaska, the Pacific plate is being pushed under the Aleutians, and most of the state's seismic activity is concentrated in the chain of 300 islands, which stretches 1,200 miles.
"That's why they're there," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. "Every one of those is a volcanic island."
Four of the most powerful quakes ever recorded were in Alaska, Caruso said.
One of those struck Alaska in March 1964, a 9.5-magnitude disaster that killed 131 people, including 16 in Oregon and California. And it wasn't the quake itself that caused most of the fatalities. As in the Japan disaster earlier this year, it was the tsunami.
The earthquake and resulting tsunami were especially destructive to the town of Valdez, where 31 people died. A wave surged inland after a large section of land slid into the Valdez Inlet. The events destroyed dozens of boats and started fires that burned for two weeks. The town was relocated after the Army Corps of Engineers found a site with more stable ground.
"We've got nine different sirens," said George Keeney, the Valdez fire chief. "After more than 20 seconds of violent shaking, our dispatcher automatically hits the alarm button."
Zidek said the state stepped up its earthquake and tsunami preparedness after 1964.
"We've seen a number of tsunami warnings recently and have been responding to them in a pretty timely fashion," he said. "We build the systems with redundancies, so if one of those systems fails, we have backups in place."
He said there are multiple ways a tsunami warning is distributed in Alaska, including email lists, weather radios, text messages and sirens.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, alerted communities Friday morning. The center provides tsunami warnings for Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
"The most important warning we'll receive is violent shaking of the ground," Zidek said. "Residents in coastal communities are well trained for it."
Since Alaska is such a far-flung state, he said, local emergency responders and city officials have the ultimate discretion about when to issue evacuation orders.
And because Alaska is so large, geographically diverse and remote, communities have to have a level of preparedness that makes most of the Lower 48 states seem, well, not prepared.
"When you guys call for hurricanes down there, we call them winter storms," Keeney said. Valdez gets more than 300 inches of snow a year and rarely closes its schools.
But as the town's 4,000 residents know from the 1964 disaster, the biggest threat comes from the sea. Keeney said his dispatchers test the sirens weekly, and the community stages regular drills.
"I've got enough sirens in this community that people complain to me that they can hear them in their bathrooms," he said.
Keeney said he pushes preparedness for everyone, "from kindergarten to adults." Local schoolchildren have color-coded backpacks so they can be quickly identified. Everyone is urged to have a survival kit with enough food and water to last several days. Keeney said he keeps one in his truck.
"Even though we think we're prepared and got it all lined out, Mother Nature can make your day harder," he said.
Zidek said that various regions of Alaska experience earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, floods, avalanches and sea storms. Sometimes wind or water pushes sea ice hundreds of yards inland, where it can affect roads and buildings.
"We have events that don't happen anywhere in the country," he said. "We have to be ready for anything."
[/quote]
[url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/02/2388081/in-alaska-earthquakes-are-a-fact.html]**Why is the source the Miami Herald??*[/url]
I only heard about this quake because my phone is registered with USGS so that when there's a 5.0+ magnitude quake between Oregon and Alaska it sends me a text and that woke me up.
[B]Edit: Oh fuck. It was a 6.8, not a 5.8. Why does clicking the "Go Advanced" button no longer work?[/B]
Yes EliteGuy. I know.
It's because Alaska is in the ring of fire and earthquakes are very common there.
Also misleading title, the EQ was 6.8 not 5.8
They get earthquakes all the time, of course no one's going to talk about it, unless it becomes something serious.
Did the earth open up, sucking Sarah Palin into the fiery depths of hell?
[QUOTE=EliteGuy;32083769]It's because Alaska is in the ring of fire and earthquakes are very common there.
Also misleading title, the EQ was 6.8 not 5.8[/QUOTE]
[img]http://home.swipnet.se/~w-35837/cash/cash.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=cqbcat;32083860]Did the earth open up, sucking Sarah Palin into the fiery depths of hell?[/QUOTE]
Why the fuck would they want to take back something they threw out?
[QUOTE=MIPS;32083741]
[B]Edit: Oh fuck. It was a 6.8, not a 5.8. Why does clicking the "Go Advanced" button no longer work?[/B]
Yes EliteGuy. I know.[/QUOTE]Just click Edit again and it should take you there.
i hate living here :(
is sarah palin ok?!?!?
[IMG]http://kevinanderson.ca/Alert/AlertUpdate11/snowsculpt01.JPG[/IMG]
oh fuck my igloo fell over.
I care. Those islands contain precious artifacts from WWII and they would be of high value. Plus the whole area is geographically badass.
Nobody cares because people in Alaska aren't a bunch of goddamned drama queens like east coasters are. They get shit done.
Best way to kill the afternoon was reading people from California posting on Twitter mocking the east coasters.
Alaskans have more dangerous things to worry about, like mosquitoes.
Seriously my mom used to live there, she said they almost made the mosquito the state bird.
It's Alaska. Only 43 people live there. When you live in the ring of fire, earthquakes are to be expected
[QUOTE=MisterMooth;32118149]is sarah palin ok?!?!?[/QUOTE]
she never was ok
wow, there's been a lot of decent sized earthquakes in the pacific this past week. i think there were a couple 7.0's in the south pacific.
[QUOTE=Sleepy Head;32119475]wow, there's been a lot of decent sized earthquakes in the pacific this past week. i think there were a couple 7.0's in the south pacific.[/QUOTE]
Yea, but don't get carried away with that and start going on about it's the apocalypse. Touch wood.
Still, I would care if there was damage. You?
[quote]his dispatchers test the sirens weekly[/quote]
Wow, that would get old fast.
Earthquakes are scary as hell. A 5.8 isn't really that big of a deal though. It's powerful enough to be felt and maybe tip your bookshelf over, but not really big enough to bring down whole buildings and whatnot. I've been in a 7.2 earthquake about 11 years ago in Taiwan, at like 3am. Shit was fucking scary. You get woken up in the middle of the night, the whole building shaking, and no lights anywhere (in a 7.2 earthquake, you're pretty much guaranteed a power-out). A lot of buildings collapsed throughout Taiwan, and apparently some of my friends were crushed to death but since I was only 6 or 7 back then, no one told me.
So anyone who was in the east coast who think "man I've survived an earthquake" haven't really experienced shit.
Edit:
Found it: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/921_earthquake[/url]
[QUOTE=Chinook249;32119510]Yea, but don't get carried away with that and start going on about it's the apocalypse. Touch wood.
Still, I would care if there was damage. You?[/QUOTE]
yeah, i know. they're probably just related to the japan earthquake. it's just scary as hell since i'm in hawaii and pretty much any earthquake in the pacific has the potential to trigger a tsunami. the thought of a tsunami freaks the shit outta me since where i live is below sea level
[QUOTE=toastedspyro;32119732]So anyone who was in the east coast who think "man I've survived an earthquake" haven't really experienced shit.[/QUOTE]
No man I'm lucky to be alive, look at the destruction it caused!
[img]http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/mykisscountry937.com/files/2011/08/VA-Earthquake-300x213.jpg[/img]
Sitting at University of Alaska Fairbanks right now.
Here I am thinking "Oh that's what that slight tremor was last week".
[QUOTE=newbz;32120713]Sitting at University of Alaska Fairbanks right now.
Here I am thinking "Oh that's what that slight tremor was last week".[/QUOTE] The island chain is so far away from Fairbanks you probably didn't even realize it until just now. I wonder if anyone felt anything in Anchorage.
Didn't feel a thing...
[QUOTE=Contag;32119581]Wow, that would get old fast.[/QUOTE]
They test the tornado sirens every Wednesday at 4PM here. Sucks where I work too, because there's a fire dept. right across the street and right across the drive-through speaker so anyone working drive gets blasted by the siren through the mic and then they get bitched at because they can't hear what the customer's saying.
I found the thread title incredibly hilarious.
Earthquakes fucking suck because they happen so randomly. Every time one happens I freeze.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;32118164]more importantly, can she still see russia from her house?![/QUOTE]
That would of been funny if she actually said that.
We had a 4.9 last year...
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK8FzEVhLOw[/media]
Even with the title I still get comments from people telling me to clean my room...
New Caledonia and Vanuatu got a magnitude 7.0 earthquake two days ago
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