A 5.0 magnitude earthquake occured at a depth of less than a kilometer 100km northwest of Juneau on August 31. (Screenshot from USGS)

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake occured at a depth of less than a kilometer 100km northwest of Juneau on August 31. (Screenshot from USGS)

5.0 earthquake rumbles Juneau, but doesn’t do any harm

No damage from the earthquake reported

Juneau experienced a 5.0 magnitude earthquake at 8:32 p.m. Saturday night, but no damage was reported.

The epicenter was located more than 60 miles northwest of Juneau at a depth of less than a mile. This earthquake was the largest of more than half a dozen earthquakes centered in the same region in the last month, according to data provided by the United States Geological Survey. The other earthquakes, all centered 45 miles west of Haines, were less than 3.0 magnitude.

“I felt it! I was in my driveway and my vehicle was shaking,” Capital City Fire/Rescue Assistant Chief Travis Mead told the Empire. “I thought my kid was doing it.”

Mead said CCFR did not receive any reports of damage or injury from the quake.

“We didn’t get any calls,” he said Monday. “Just the way we like it.”

The Juneau Police Department did not receive any such reports either, according to the dispatch center.

Southeast Alaska is no stranger to powerful earthquakes. According to USGS data, there’s been more than 20 earthquakes as strong or stronger than the quake Saturday in the last three decades.

Alaska was also unwilling host to the second most powerful earthquake in recorded history, a magnitude 9.2 “Good Friday” earthquake that shattered Anchorage in 1964. All these earthquakes come from interaction between the Pacific Plate and North American Plate, part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ around the Pacific Ocean that’s home to the vast majority of the world’s earthquakes and volcanoes.


• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 523-2271 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.


More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 25, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)
Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Dozens of people throw colors in the air and at each other during a Holi festival gathering Monday night outside Spice Juneau Indian Cuisine. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Holi festival in Juneau revives colorful childhood memories for some, creates them for others

Dozens toss caution and colored cornstarch to the wind in traditional Hindu celebration of spring

Most Read