Anchorage

Magnitude 4.4 aftershock strikes the Anchorage area

An aftershock of the big November earthquake struck the Anchorage area at about 8:02 a.m. Monday.

The aftershock’s reviewed magnitude was magnitude 4.4, the largest since Jan. 23, when a 4.5 rattled the region, said Natalia Ruppert, a seismologist with the Alaska Earthquake Center. Initial reports pegged Monday’s aftershock at 4.5.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

The total number of aftershocks since the magnitude 7.0 quake Nov. 30 is approaching 9,000, Ruppert said. The frequency of larger aftershocks has slowed, as the center has forecast. There have been four aftershocks between magnitude 4.0 and 4.5 over the last month, she said.

[Aftershocks should continue at least until November, new forecast says]

“So definitely fewer than in December," she said. “They are less frequent, these larger aftershocks, than they used to be.”

The aftershock was centered 11 miles northwest of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, she said.

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