Largest US Quake in Half-Century Causes Alaska Little Damage

A line of cars evacuating the Homer Spit in Homer, Alaska, after a tsunami warning was issued following a magnitude 8.2 earthquake in the Alaska Peninsula, on July 28, 2021. Sarah Knapp, Homer News via AP

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—The largest earthquake in the United States in the last half century produced a lot of shaking but spared Alaska any major damage in a sparsely populated region, officials said Thursday.

The magnitude 8.2 earthquake was reported about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, and it struck just south of the Alaska Peninsula, nearly 500 miles southwest of Anchorage. The quake was about 60 miles offshore and 29 miles below the surface of the North Pacific Ocean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.