Earthquake hits Alaska October 19, 2020

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale hit Alaska (blue circle on map) on October 19, 2020 8:54 pm UTC.

The image shows a screenshot taken October 19, 2020 11:30 pm UTC featuring earthquakes over the past 7 days, with the M7.5 earthquake showing up in blue and the other earthquakes colored by age, i.e. hour (red), day (orange) and week (yellow). 

Such huge earthquakes can cause tsunamis.

In the Arctic, such huge earthquakes also come with the danger that they will destabilize methane hydrates at the seafloor which can cause huge amounts of methane to erupt. Shockwaves can travel along faults and cause eruptions at places far away from where the original eathquake occurred. 

Ominously, the MetOp-1 satellite recorded methane levels as high as 2618 ppb on the morning of October 22, 2020 at 586 mb. 

On the afternoon of October 23, 2020, the SNPP satellite recorded methane levels as high as 2735 ppb at 487.2 mb. 

The situation is dire and calls for immediate, comprehensive and effective action, as described in the Climate Plan.

Links

• USGS - M 7.5 - 91 km SE of Sand Point, Alaska - 2020-10-19 20:54:40 (UTC)
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000c9hg/executive

• USGS - Earthquakes map
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map

• Seismic Events
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/seismic-events.html

• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html