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ALASKA QUAKEDID THE GROUND SHAKE NEAR YOU?

Southcentral Alaska · 60.10°N

Earthquakes near Seward

Reading the latest USGS reports for the ground near Seward…

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 Seward. The dashed pale circle is a true 250 km radius around Seward; amber rings are the recorded epicenters, sized by magnitude; small cream squares are the other towns, and the ringed cream marker is Seward. If the USGS feed does not answer, the coastline, ring, and marker still show — and no events are plotted.

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

Recent near Seward — 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 Seward, not copied from the feed's place names.

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

The five largest earthquakes recorded within 200 km of Seward 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?

190 earthquakes of M4.0 or larger were recorded within 200 km in the last 10 years — one of the most active rates. Since 1900 the catalog holds 911 M4-or-larger events within the same radius.

Seward was reshaped by the 1964 earthquake: the waterfront slid into Resurrection Bay and the tsunami that followed destroyed the harbor and rail yard. The megathrust segment offshore remains its defining source.

Southcentral Alaska — why it shakes

Southcentral Alaska sits above the place where the Pacific Plate slides beneath North America — the Aleutian megathrust. That collision built the Alaska Range and produced the two largest earthquakes in recorded U.S. history. Most of the region's shaking comes in three flavors: megathrust earthquakes offshore in the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound, earthquakes inside the sinking Pacific slab 30 to 150 km down (the kind felt as a long roll across the whole region), and shallow breaks on crustal faults like the Castle Mountain fault in the Matanuska Valley.

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.

Seward on the sister sites

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

Aurora over Seward — tonight's northern lights outlook.

Seward, Resurrection Bay — the nearest tide station in the fleet's inventory, 2 km from Seward.