A magnitude 6.5 quake hit west of Nikolski, the third big one this year

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck about 165 kilometers west of Nikolski early Thursday. No tsunami followed, no warning was issued for Alaska, and federal modeling projects no deaths and under $1 million in damage.

Six people filed felt reports. The strongest recorded shaking was moderate.

The quake hit at a depth of about 112 kilometers — deep enough that it was unlikely to displace enough seafloor to generate a damaging wave. The National Tsunami Warning Center reported no threat.

What's notable is how often this is happening. A magnitude 6.3 quake struck south of Nikolski on Sept. 3, followed by dozens of aftershocks. In February, a 6.1 southwest of the village set off more than 60 aftershocks overnight, one of them a 5.5. NOAA's community profile places the Umnak Island village in one of the most seismically active areas in the world.

The hazard that matters most for Aleutian communities isn't the deep quakes. State geologists identify the primary tsunami risk as near-field — shallow ruptures along the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust, close enough that a wave could arrive before any warning does.