What do Alaska’s earthquakes mean for Whatcom? Stay prepared, says WWU professor

Friday’s earthquakes that rocked Alaska do not have a direct connection to the fault lines near Whatcom County, but it does serve as a reminder about the importance of being prepared.

That’s the message from Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a professor in the geology department at Western Washington University. She spent five years in Alaska studying seismic activity at the Alaska Volcano Observatory before coming to Western in 2006.

While earthquakes are not uncommon in Alaska, the quakes measuring 7.0 and 5.7 just north of Anchorage Friday morning do have unusual aspects that will give seismologists new information worth studying, Caplan-Auerbach said in an interview Friday.