http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071219/ap_on_re_us/alaska_quake;_ylt=AhapTRUnz1nVoTN_HSICFrWs0NUE
Large quake shakes Aleutian Islands
Wed Dec 19, 8:28 AM ET
A large earthquake rattled Alaska's seismically active Aleutian
Islands, but there were no immediate reports of any damages or
injuries.
The magnitude-7.2 quake struck at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and was centered
about 125 miles west of Adak in the island chain, according to a
preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
A dispatcher with the Anchorage Police Department said he didn't feel
the quake, some 1,300 miles away, and there were no reports of any
injuries or damages.
The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 islands that extend
southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean.
A separate earthquake of magnitude-4.0 shook the San Bernardino
Mountains resort town of Big Bear City early Wednesday about 100 miles
east of Los Angeles. There were no reports of any damages or injuries
from the quake, which struck shortly before 4:15 a.m., a dispatcher
with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
A tsunami warning was canceled early Wednesday for Alaska's coasts
after officials determined waves from the earthquake posed no
widespread destructive threat.
The earth's most active seismic feature, the circum-Pacific seismic
belt, brushes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, where more earthquakes
occur than in the other 49 States combined.
The Andreanof Island sustained a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in March
1957 that caused very severe damage on Adak and Unimak Islands. A
damaging tsunami was generated, and a wall of water 40 feet high
smashed the coastline of Scotch Cap on Unimak Island. Sand Bay, near
Adak, reported 26-foot waves inundated its shores.
HOOROO
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