Earthquakes in Anchorage

Anchorage sits in one of the most seismically active regions on Earth, giving it a very high earthquake risk. The city lies above the boundary where the Pacific plate dives beneath North America along the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone, a setting that generates frequent quakes ranging from small daily tremors to great megathrust events. Both deep intraslab earthquakes and shallow crustal faults contribute to the hazard directly under and around the metropolitan area.

Anchorage was devastated by the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake of March 27, 1964, the most powerful ever recorded in North America, which triggered massive landslides in the Turnagain Heights neighborhood and generated deadly tsunamis along the coast. Decades later, in November 2018, a magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck directly beneath the city, buckling roads and damaging buildings but causing no deaths thanks to modern building codes adopted after 1964. Frequent felt earthquakes keep seismic preparedness a constant reality for residents.