>Hi John.

>I read the part about the earthquake on your homepage, and just like you

>I feel quite privileged to have been here in Fairbanks during this

>event. However, a couple of the things you wrote are not all in

>accordance with the information I've been able to find.

>First, all sources I have read mention the distance from Fairbanks to

>the epicenter to be between 90 and 100 miles (you mention 'within 80

>miles'). The AEIC homepage reports the distance as being 92 miles.

>Second, it is not the second largest earthquake recorded in North

>America.

>Rather, it would most probably be somewhere between number 10 and 20. I

>don't know exactly where it would be, but a list of 12 other earthquakes

>in the US having ML7.9 or larger can be found at

>http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/10maps_usa.html

>And to those can be added eventual earthquakes in North America outside

>the US - I know there was an ML8.0 earthquake in Mexico in 1995.

>That said, we certainly should feel lucky (those of us who like such

>stuff). We were within 100 miles of the largest earthquake in 2002 (so

>far) throughout the world, and coming from small, seismically safe

>Denmark I am very happy to have experienced this, especially since I

>have a bad habit of never being in the right spot at the right time.

-Snippage---for Poul's sake.  :)

>Though we do have

>seismically active regions closer to Fairbanks than the Alaska Range I

>would believe that the Denali Fault is the closest possible site for

>events of this magnitude, and this is estimated to be about the most it

>is able to deliver at all. A quote from the AEIC homepage:

>"This M7.9 shock is the largest earthquake on the Denali fault since at

>least 1912, when a M 7.2 earthquake occurred in the general vicinity of

>the fault, more than 50 miles to the east of today's epicenter. Since

>there was only one seismographs operating in Alaska at that time and no

>reports of surface faulting in the remote Alaska Range, the location of

>the 1912 shock is not well-constrained. The modern fault scarp is very

>clear, but somewhat degraded, indicating that there has been at least

>several hundred years since last major earthquake(s) between McKinley

>Park on the west and the Richardson Highway on the east. In epicentral

>area, USGS geologist George Plafker observed that the last big

>earthquake had 6-8 m of right-lateral offset. Slip rate on the Denali

>fault since the last glaciation (10,000 years before present) averages

>about 1 cm/year. It follows that a 6-m displacement would require 600

>years of strain accumulation."

>( http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/M7.9_quake_2002/M7.9_quake.html )

>So even though we were not within 80 miles from the second largest

>earthquake ever recorded in North America I'd say there's no need to be

>disappointed... :-) We couldn't get it much better!

>Thought you might be able to use some of this information on your

>homepage.

>Poul.

   -[I] sure can, thanks, Poul!