6.1 quake hits Aleutian Islands

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A powerful earthquake shook the Aleutian Islands on Sunday, but there were no reports of damage on the sparsely populated island chain.

The magnitude-6.1 quake hit just before 12:30 p.m., said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jamal Daniels, at the Coast Guard’s long-range navigation station on Attu.

“You could hear it before you could feel it,” Daniels said. “It was kind of like a pounding sound, like somebody was pounding on the wall with both of their fists. The mirror started shaking, and the ground started rolling.”

The 20 people at the Coast Guard station are the only inhabitants of Attu, Alaska’s westernmost point, more than 1,500 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The temblor, which was centered 90 miles south of Attu in the Pacific Ocean, did not generate a tsunami, according to the West Coast Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. An earthquake of that size could cause significant damage if it were to strike in an urban area.

Michael Burgy, a technician at the warning center, said the quake also was felt strongly on nearby Shemya Island, where about 24 Air Force members work.