ALASKA: A natural disaster of a pretty strong earthquake hit few of Aleutian Islands on Sunday night, 7.01pm.
Three of Aleutian Island fishing villages, Nikolski, Dutch Harbor and Unalaska were approached by an earthquake. The disaster shook the villages and it lasted for about three minutes. It was discovered that the epicenter of the earthquake started in the North Pacific. This was just about 40 miles east of the village in Nikolski and 850 miles southwest of Anchorage. Fortunately, there were no reports of serious injuries and major damage done by the earthquake as the Aleutian residents are sparsely settled.
“There was some very minor damage at Nikolski, with items knocked off shelves and small items damaged." said George Carter, a seismologist from the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
Cart also mentioned that the quake was felt strongly in the towns of Unalaska, Dutch Harbor and Nikolski. These three fishing villages are located on the western islands in the Aleutian chain.
According to an official, 20 aftershocks of the earthquake were found with one of them measuring at 5.0 on the scale. However, none was powerful enough to cause a tsunami. Alaska Tsunami Warning Center on the other hand, reported that it was measured 6.6 on Richter scale. Earthquake with 6.6 magnitude can cause severe damages if it hits the populate areas. Richter is a scale that measures ground motion and is recorded on seismographs. In that scale, each increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude. For example, 7.5 is 10 times greater than 6.5.
There are official categories of earthquake motions. The magnitude of 3.5 can cause slight damage, 4 with a moderate damage, 5 with a considerable damage, 6 with a severe damage, 7 will bring major earthquake which can cause widespread heavy damage and 8 is the major earthquake of all.
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