News

Earthquakes are caused by the movement of the tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust. Between 2020 and 2021, the Pacific plate and the North American plate off the coast of Alaska slipped along the Alaska-Aleutian fault, producing a series of earthquakes, including the Chignik, Alaska, earthquake on July 29, 2021, which registered an 8.2 in magnitude. MSU’s Jeffrey Freymueller is researching this earthquake to learn more about exactly where that slip occurred (and how much) to better understand how faults work and the risk of future earthquakes and tsunamis.