Four quakes off Nikolski, largest magnitude 5.3; no tsunami danger

Four earthquakes were recorded offshore southwest of Nikolski late Monday, the largest at magnitude 5.3. The National Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami danger. Nobody has reported feeling them.

The center issued its statement eight minutes after the largest quake, putting it then at magnitude 5.1 and 45 miles southwest of the village. "There is NO tsunami danger from this earthquake," the statement said.

The Alaska Earthquake Center later reviewed that event and placed it at magnitude 5.2, 58 miles south-southwest of Nikolski at 10:44 pm. "No felt reports have been received at this time," the center said. The U.S. Geological Survey's reviewed catalog lists the same quake at 5.3, about 16 miles deep.

The other three came within an hour: a 3.7 at 10:52 pm, a 4.5 at 11:05 and another 4.5 at 11:45, ranging from 16 to 26 miles deep. Automated feeds published before seismologists reviewed the events carried different numbers.

Nikolski sits on Umnak Island in the Fox Islands, and the seafloor around it moves often. The Pacific plate is grinding beneath the North American plate along the Aleutian arc, a boundary roughly 1,900 miles long that built both the islands and the trench offshore. Frequent earthquakes there do not by themselves signal a tsunami threat.

Residents who feel shaking can file a report through the USGS "Did You Feel It?" page.