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ALASKA QUAKEDID THE GROUND SHAKE NEAR YOU?

Southeast Alaska · 55.34°N

Earthquakes near Ketchikan

Reading the latest USGS reports for the ground near Ketchikan…

Live sections load from the USGS feed. If the feed does not answer, this page says so — it never fills the gap with old numbers.

Recorded USGS earthquakes from the last 7 days, magnitude 2.5 and larger, within 250 km of Ketchikan. The dashed pale circle is a true 250 km radius around Ketchikan; amber rings are the recorded epicenters, sized by magnitude; small cream squares are the other towns, and the ringed cream marker is Ketchikan. If the USGS feed does not answer, the coastline, ring, and marker still show — and no events are plotted.

Most felt near Ketchikan — last 7 days, within 250 km

Recent near Ketchikan — last 7 days, M1.0 and larger within 250 km, newest first

Every event links to its USGS event page, the authority for that earthquake. Distances are measured from Ketchikan, not copied from the feed's place names.

The biggest on record near Ketchikan — USGS catalog, as recorded

The five largest earthquakes recorded within 200 km of Ketchikan since 1900, from USGS catalog pulls made November 8, 2026. Pre-instrumental magnitudes are estimates, and catalog completeness varies by era — the fine print is on the about page.

How often does the ground move here?

3 earthquakes of M4.0 or larger were recorded within 200 km in the last 10 years — a low rate. Since 1900 the catalog holds 30 M4-or-larger events within the same radius.

Ketchikan is the quiet end of Southeast: its recorded top five are all distant M6-class events on the offshore Queen Charlotte fault system, and nothing in the modern catalog has been centered close to town — a fact about the fault geometry, not a promise.

Southeast Alaska — why it shakes

Southeast Alaska is strike-slip country. The Queen Charlotte–Fairweather fault system runs just offshore along the panhandle, the Pacific and North America plates sliding sideways past each other — the same style of faulting as California's San Andreas. The 1949 M8.1 Queen Charlotte earthquake and the 1958 M7.8 Lituya Bay earthquake, which triggered the tallest recorded wave run-up in the world, both came from this system.

New to the numbers? What magnitude means explains the scale in plain words — including why a whole step is about 32 times the energy, and why what people feel is not the same as damage.

Ketchikan on the sister sites

Daylight in Ketchikan — sunrise, sunset, and day length.

Aurora over Ketchikan — tonight's northern lights outlook.

Ketchikan — the nearest tide station in the fleet's inventory, 2 km from Ketchikan.