ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A powerful earthquake shook a large swath of Alaska on Thursday morning, knocking things off shelves and causing people to take cover but bringing no immediate reports of major damages.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, and hit at 9:51 a.m. The epicenter was 80 miles northwest of the state’s largest city, where it was strongly felt and lingered for at least one minute, the Alaska Earthquake Center said.
In Willow, about 40 miles north of Anchorage and nearer to the quake’s epicenter, a clerk at the town’s hardware and grocery store said everything shook but nothing fell off the shelves.
“Everything just rocked around,” Anne Holliday said. “It’s an old building, just rickety.”
Residents of Anchorage ducked under desks and tables as the ground shook. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury, and no tsunami was expected. The shaking was felt as far as 250 miles northeast of the epicenter.