Back-To-Back Earthquakes Hit Alaska's Aleutian Islands

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Two significant earthquakes shook Alaska's seismically active Aleutian Islands, but there were no immediate reports of any damages or injuries. <br/><br/>The magnitude-5.9

Friday, December 21st 2007, 7:24 am

By: News On 6

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Two significant earthquakes shook Alaska's seismically active Aleutian Islands, but there were no immediate reports of any damages or injuries.

The magnitude-5.9 and 6.1 quakes struck about one minute apart starting at 9:23 p.m. on Thursday. Both were centered about 100 miles west of Adak in the island chain, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.

``There were two tonight and that was very unusual,'' said geophysicist Paul Huang of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. ``We're going to study this a little more closely.''

Huang said there was no tsunami warning expected.

On Tuesday, a magnitude-7.2 quake hit the chain about 125 miles west of Adak.

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 islands that extend southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean.

The earth's most active seismic feature, the circum-Pacific seismic belt, brushes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, where more earthquakes occur than in the other 49 States combined.