Authorities retract false earthquake report
 

From the BNO Newsroom.

QUINHAGAK, Alaska (BNO NEWS) -- A spokeswoman for the United States Geological Survey on Wednesday said no earthquake struck off Alaska, after earlier reporting a strong 6.0 magnitude jolt in error.

The USGS says the information which it had published was an automated message from the Alaska Earthquake Information Center but further checking revealed no earthquake had been recorded.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center initially said a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck 19 miles south-southwest of Quinhagak, a small city with about 600 residents, at 6.24 a.m. local time. The center in Alaska still reported the earthquake at the time of this report, but the USGS said this was not possible.

Initial messages from tsunami warning centers and earthquake information centers are often based on automatic readings, which provide an initial and preliminary magnitude of an earthquake which occurred only minutes before. Although they are often close to the final magnitude, they can sometimes generate a false magnitude.

The USGS said it does not report earthquakes in Alaska below magnitude 2.5. A small earthquake, below the threshold, may have occurred.

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