News writing assignment 1 - Earthquake story

ALEUTIAN ISLAND – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the North Pacific about 40 miles east of the village of Nikolski and 850 miles southwest of Anchorage at 7:01 p.m. PST Sunday night.

According to George Carts, a seismologist at the Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre, he stated that the quake was strongly felt in the towns of Unalaska, Dutch Harbor and Nikolski which are located on western islands in the Aleutian chain. The 3-minute quake resulted in minor damages at Nikolski.

Officials said that the 20 aftershocks; one measured 5.0 on the scale was not powerful enough to cause a tsunami which sparsed the Aleutians.

An earthquake of 6.6 magnitudes can cause severe damage if it hits populated areas. Luckily, there were no reports of injuries or major damage.

Richter scale measures ground motion and is recorded on seismographs; each increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude; example, 7.5 is 10 times greater than 6.5.

Official categories of earthquake magnitude: 3.5 may cause slight damage; 4.0 may cause moderate damage; 5.0 may cause considerable damage; 6.0 may cause severe damage; 7.0 may cause major earthquake and widespread heavy damage; 8.0 is a great quake.