On December 6, 2025, the St. Elias mountain vary was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the Canadian Yukon/ Alaska border. In accordance with the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake’s epicenter was roughly 230 miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles west of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. A whole bunch of aftershocks have been recorded following the preliminary quake, with the most important measuring 5.7 in magnitude. There was no Tsunami warning with the quake and, fortunately, no instant stories of harm or harm, however people so far as Whitehorse reportedly felt it. The closest communities to the earthquake’s epicenter are Haines Junction, Yukon (80mi), and Yakutat, Alaska (56mi), which have small populations of simply over 1,000 and 662 individuals, respectively. Regardless of no catastrophic outcomes to the close by communities, the earthquake definitely did not depart the St. Elias vary unscathed. The earthquake was brought on by a strike-slip occasion, which is when the 2 sides of a fault slide previous each other horizontally. On this case, motion occurred on the northernmost finish of the Fairweather Fault, which doesn’t have a lot beforehand recorded seismic exercise.The earthquake’s epicenter was recorded to be 6 miles beneath the Hubbard Glacier, which is North America’s largest tidewater glacier. On Friday, December twelfth, the Yukon Geological Survey flew to the location of the earthquake to doc landslide and avalanche exercise brought on by the quake, and to find out if the fault ruptured the bottom floor. Click on the arrows on the embedded put up beneath to see the dramatic photos of the harm. Among the particles was dispersed over a three-mile-long by one-mile-wide space.Maintain studying for extra.
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Regardless of 2m of fault slip recorded at a depth of 5km, YGS did not discover any proof of floor rupture, though it is attainable a rupture was hidden by glacial ice. The earthquake did, nevertheless, set off quite a few landslides, largely on the slopes of Mt. King George. There have been additionally slides noticed on the close by slopes of Mt. Logan, Mt. Vancouver, and different surrounding sub-peaks. Farther from the quake’s epicenter, snow and ice avalanches have been noticed extra often than landslides. Seracs and ice falls have been additionally often seen toppled and damaged, and the earthquake brought on widespread harm to glacial ice. Photos shared by YGS present landslides and avalanches from Mt. King George and surrounding peaks with particles flows of as much as 6km (3.7 miles) and widths of as much as 1800m (5,900 ft.). “It’s lucky that this occasion didn’t happen throughout mountaineering season, as earthquake-triggered serac falls and avalanches have brought on fatalities prior to now. The harm to ice within the area and protracted rockfall from landslides scars could pose new further hazards for mountaineering and snowboarding expeditions within the space,” learn the caption of a social media put up from the YGS. The Wrangell- St. Elias vary and close by Chugach vary are each well-known ski mountaineering locations in Alaska, identified for having quite a few large peaks, distant entry, and size peak-to-sea ski descents. Notably, Cody Townsend, Dan Corn, Nick Russell, and Bjarne Salen tried to ski Mt. St. Elias in 2021 and documented the try in Townsend’s FIFTY Venture collection.
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