Alaska’s two largest quakes in 2024 were magnitude 6.3

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Alaska had two magnitude 6.3 earthquakes in 2024, and they were the state’s largest quakes for the year, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

Alaska Earthquake Center Seismic Data Manager Heather McFarlin, who wrote the center’s report detailing Alaska’s 2024 seismicity, said the two 6.3 quakes happened along the state’s long Aleutian Chain — south of Adak Island — one day apart, on Dec. 8 and 9. There was also a magnitude 6.1 quake about 20 minutes after the Dec. 9 temblor.

Alaska usually has a few magnitude 6.0 quakes each year, and a magnitude 7.0 is expected about every few years, McFarlin said.

Magnitude 8.0 earthquakes are rare in Alaska, but do happen.

“In 2023, we had a magnitude 7.2 in the Shumagin Islands, and then in 2021, we had that magnitude 8.2 off the coast of Chignik," she said. “So it’s much smaller events this year than we have the last few years.

“We have earthquakes all over the state, so it’s really important that we have seismic stations all over the state.”

She said since the state has added seismic stations between 2019 and 2021, Alaska now has a much larger footprint for monitoring.

“That’s really helped us to understand the seismicity in some of these regions that were previously not monitored,” she said.

Those areas include Northwest, Northeast, and Western Alaska.

According to the Alaska Earthquake Center report, there were about 40,000 seismic events in 2024, which include earthquakes but also things like ground movement from volcanoes and glaciers.

McFarlin estimated non-earthquakes accounted for less than 5% of the quakes the Alaska Earthquake Center processed last year.

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