Moderate earthquake wakes sleepers in southeast Alaska

JUNEAU, Alaska, June 4 (UPI) -- An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter magnitude scale and centered in Glacier National Park shook southeast Alaska early Wednesday.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said the quake hit just before 4 a.m. It woke sleepers in much of the Alaska Panhandle.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.7.

The quake's epicenter was in a remote area 96 miles west-northwest of Juneau, the state capital. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Earthquakes in the 5.0 to 5.9 range are classified as moderate but strong enough to cause significant damage to poorly constructed buildings. This one was followed by a number of much smaller quakes, most of them in the range where they were unlikely to be felt even by people close to the epicenter.

Willeke Burnham, a police dispatcher in Skagway, 60 miles east of the epicenter, said she felt the shaking herself and got a few calls from concerned residents.

"The building shook quite a bit and then it felt like I was on the water. And it lasted pretty long too, maybe about a minute, minute and a half," she told KTOO-TV in Juneau.

There were reports of people in the Canadian Yukon, 200 miles away, being wakened by the quake.