Sunday, January 24, 2016 Earthquake!

Seward, Alaska

Early this morning at 1:30 am, a 7.1 earthquake shook south-central Alaska. Startled out of a sound sleep, I listened and waited in awe and apprehension as my bed rocked me back and forth and the house rattled. I felt very small indeed riding this seismic wave as the earth shook. The intensity increased, then diminished and faded away. Whew!

I hopped out of bed and checked the house. Incredibly, only a few things had fallen, and nothing of significance was damaged. It was reassuring that the emergency alert sirens were silent and the power remained on, an illusion of normality. And so I went back to bed and missed some rather large aftershocks.

The USGS and National Tsunami Warning Center reported the tectonic quake at a depth of 76 miles on the west side of Cook Inlet, 65 miles west of Homer and just north of Mt Augustine. It was the largest intermediate depth earthquake ever recorded in Cook Inlet since recording began in the 1960s. No tsunami was generated.

The Alaska Dispatch News at adn.com posted many stories about this.

I wonder how the birds responded in the dark of night. Did they cling ever tighter to their perches, or fly blindly away? By daybreak, life seemed to continue as usual, as it must.

Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter


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