Hi All,

I am very curious about this recent string of quakes occurring at Andreanof Islands. Though this locale is not a stranger to frequent quakes, this many in such a few days seems rather unusual.

The following quakes were listed at Red Puma and all were manually calculated, so we know they are good, though the NEIC may use a different magnitude when they update their reports.

17Mar2002 03:57:50.0 51.8N 173.3W 50 MS=5.5 M*GSR ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIA0644
17Mar2002 03:12:23.1 51.2N 173.1W 33 MS=4.6 M GSR ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIA0446
17Mar2002 02:48:22.5 51.7N 173.2W 50 MS=4.7 M*GSR ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIA0413

Here's a news story about a mega earthquake which is interesting reading.

Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1957 03 09 14:22:31 UTC, 9.1 Mw

This great earthquake destroyed two bridges on Adak Island, damaged houses, and left a 4.5 meter crack in a road. On Umimak Island, part of a dock was destroyed, and Mount Vsevidof erupted after being dormant for 200 years. Further, this shock generated a 15 meter tsunami that smashed into the coastline at Scotch Cap and an 8 meter tsunami that washed away many buildings and damaged oil lines extensively at Sand Bay. This tsunami continued to Hawaii, where is destroyed two villages and inflicted about $5 million in property damage on Oahu and Kauai Islands. The tsunami also caused minor damage in San Diego Bay, California, before traveling to such distant countries as Chile, El Salvador, Japan, and other areas in the Pacific region. More than 300 aftershocks were reported along the southern edge of the Aleutians, from Unimak Island to Amchitka Pass.

A few years ago there was a pattern that was occurring which I found quite interesting in that shortly after Andreanof Island had a quake the Mendocino Triple Junction had one within three days and often within hours. So far it doesn't appear that this is occurring presently, but something noteworthy is happening at Andreanof.

Petra