An “earthquake swarm” is hitting the Brooks Range. Seismologists do not know why it is occurring or if it will continue.
Friday night a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck 20 miles northeast of Noatak. This is the third 5.5 quake that has struck the same area in the past two months.
Michael West is the Director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center and said, “We are now referring to this as an ‘earthquake swarm.’ That is there’s something in the earth that is causing a whole series of earthquakes of similar size. It really is quite unusual to have this in that kind of setting.”
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