Skip Links

USGS - science for a changing world

Open-File Report 95-624

Earthquakes in Alaska

By Peter J. Haeussler and George Plafker

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (216 kB)Introduction

Earthquake risk is high in much of the southern half of Alaska, but it is not the same everywhere. This map shows the overall geologic setting in Alaska that produces earthquakes. The Pacific plate (darker blue) is sliding northwestward past southeastern Alaska and then dives beneath the North American plate (light blue, green, and brown) in southern Alaska, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. Most earthquakes are produced where these two plates come into contact and slide past each other. Major earthquakes also occur throughout much of interior Alaska as a result of collision of a piece of crust with the southern margin.

First posted October 21, 2003

For additional information, contact:
Alaska Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey
4210 University Dr. 
Anchorage, AK 99508

Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). For best results viewing and printing PDF documents, it is recommended that you download the documents to your computer and open them with Adobe Reader. PDF documents opened from your browser may not display or print as intended. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.


Suggested citation:

Haeussler, Peter J., Plafker, George, 2004, Earthquakes in Alaska: U. S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 95-624, https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1995/0624/.



 


Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

Take Pride in America logo USA.gov logo U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/of/1995/0624/index.html
Page Contact Information: GS Pubs Web Contact
Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 07-Dec-2016 16:01:50 EST