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Seismologists monitoring string of Kodiak-area quakes

Aerial view of Kodiak archipelago (Map courtesy National Tsunami Warning Center)
National Tsunami Warning Center
A satellite map of the Kodiak archipelago.

Last week, from Thursday onward, a handful of earthquakes rumbled throughout Kodiak Archipelago communities.

According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, two separate 4.5 magnitude earthquakes occurred within 45 miles of Kodiak on Thursday and Friday.

Dozens of residents reported feeling the 4.5-magnitude earthquake that hit 43 miles east of Kodiak at 7:14 a.m. Thursday, according to social media posts and the center's report page.

Those quakes were among nearly a dozen that struck around Kodiak Island within the past week. But Alaska as a whole has reported 10,365 earthquakes so far this year, according to the center.

Heather McFarlin, a seismologist and seismic data manager with the center, said the recent series of earthquakes is not anything out of the ordinary.

"I wouldn't say that these are abnormal, I wouldn't say these are cause for concern," McFarlin said. "In the moment they can be startling and that's expected. We live in earthquake country, we're one of the most seismically active states in the country, and so we expect these kinds of things."

McFarlin said the center expects earthquakes to continue around Kodiak Island, the Aleutian Arc, Alaska Peninsula and Cook Inlet, where Earth's Pacific plate is subducting underneath the North American plate.

McFarlin said consecutive 4.5-magnitude earthquakes two days could be tremors ahead of a bigger temblor. But scientists don't yet have the means to predict earthquakes.

"Statistically, it's a very low chance but this could be foreshocks to something. But I wouldn't say, 'Yes, there is going to be another, bigger event,'" she said.

Aside from the two 4.5-magnitude earthquakes, a 3.3 shook 12 miles south of Larsen Bay early Friday morning, followed by a 2.5 in the same area Saturday evening and then a 2.1 on Sunday 19 miles northwest of Port Lions. The center also recorded a 1.6-magnitude earthquake 5 miles west of Karluk just before 1 a.m. Monday.

McFarlin asks that anyone who feels an earthquake around Kodiak Island share that information on the center's website by filling out a "Did You Feel It?" report.

Copyright 2025 KMXT

Davis Hovey has been reporting in Alaska for nearly a decade and currently works at KMXT in Kodiak. Hovey was born and raised in Virginia. He spent most of his childhood in rural Virginia just outside of Charlottesville where University of Virginia is located. Hovey was drawn in by the opportunity to work for a radio station in a remote, unique place like Nome, Alaska. Hovey went to Syracuse University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Broadcast Digital Journalism.