RE:Big earthquake in Alaska probably caused by fracking... Do not believe it's fracking
There are more recorded because of improvements
to monitoring.
The Earthquake Center detects an earthquake every fifteen minutes, on average. In 2018, we reported an all-time high of over 54,000 earthquakes in Alaska. As our monitoring network improves, we report more earthquakes because we are able to detect smaller earthquakes across more of the state. As the EarthScope Transportable Array project added new seismic stations in previously unmonitored areas, we noticed an upward trend of detectable earthquakes from around the state.
The subduction zone produces very large earthquakes—as large as anywhere in the world—including three of the twelve largest earthquakes ever recorded. Magnitude six and seven earthquakes can nearly happen anywhere in Alaska.
We reported over 220,000 earthquakes in Alaska over the last five years. Twenty-six of those had magnitudes of 6 or greater, and three had magnitudes of at least 7. Seventy-five percent of all earthquakes in the United States with magnitudes larger than five happen in Alaska.