An earthquake, large by California standards, but almost moderate by Alaska standards, hit on Sunday, January 24 southwest of Anchorage. It measured 7.1 on the magnitude scale (moment magnitude). The quake was on a strike-slip fault (lateral motion), and was thankfully relatively deep (128 km/80 miles). Deep is good because the waves had to travel 80 miles just to get to the surface; it's like being 80 miles away from the epicenter of a shallow quake. Because of this, the damage was minor.
Our recording device is a simple classroom demonstration seismometer, but it has proven capable of catching a good record of large distant quakes, and smaller local ones. It's available for less than $1,000 at science supply outlets like Wards Science.
that is pretty cool !
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