ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Earthquake Center has released its weekly seismic update for early February, highlighting both recent earthquake activity and the anniversary of one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Alaska.
Over the past week, about 600 earthquakes were detected across the state. The strongest was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake south of Great Sitkin Island in the western Aleutians on February 1. Six earthquakes were reported as felt by residents, including a magnitude 4.4 quake in the Anchorage area early on February 4.
The update also marked the anniversary of the 1965 magnitude 8.7 Rat Islands earthquake, which struck the western Aleutians on February 3, 1965. That massive event ruptured roughly 370 miles of the boundary where the Pacific Plate moves beneath Alaska, making it one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded worldwide…