Large earthquake, aftershock rattle corner of Canada, Alaska

TIL Desk/World/US/ A 6.2-magnitude earthquake rattled the corner of British Columbia near the boundary with southeastern Alaska early today, waking people up and setting off a series of aftershocks, including a 6.3-magnitude, the US Geological Survey said.

Agency geophysicist Amy Vaughan said it’s not completely uncommon for an aftershock to be larger than the triggering quake, though normally the following quakes are smaller. Other aftershocks ranged from magnitudes 2 to 5. They struck roughly 48 kilometres northwest of the tiny Alaska town of Mosquito Lake and about 134 kilometres southwest of Whitehorse, Canada.

 Vaughan said the shallow initial quake has the potential to cause damage but that the remote location dropped the chances of major problems.  “If people were asleep, they certainly would be jarred awake by this,” she said, adding that the quake also would have knocked items off shelves.