
Whitehorse, Yukon, 7 December (H.S.): A formidable magnitude-7.0 earthquake jolted a remote wilderness straddling the Alaska-Canada border on Saturday, registering at a shallow depth of approximately 10 kilometers and sending tremors across a 500-mile radius without triggering a tsunami alert or reports of structural damage.
The epicenter lay roughly 370 kilometers northwest of Juneau, Alaska, 250 kilometers west of Whitehorse in Yukon Territory, and 91 kilometers from the small community of Yakutat, sparing densely populated areas.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Whitehorse fielded two emergency calls amid social media buzz confirming the shake, while seismologist Alison Bird of Natural Resources Canada noted incidents of dislodged shelves and wall fixtures in the sparsely inhabited mountainous zone nearest Haines Junction, a settlement of just over 1,000 residents 130 kilometers distant.
The US Geological Survey documented vigorous aftershocks, including multiple exceeding magnitude 4 shortly after the main event, aligning with regional fault lines like the Fairweather and Totschunda systems.
Authorities in both jurisdictions affirmed no injuries or major disruptions, attributing the muted impact to the quake's isolated locale amid ongoing seismic monitoring.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar