This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. T. Neil Davis is a seismologist at the institute. The disastrous earthquake in Guatemala reminds us that Fairbanks, too, is in a seismically active area. Significant earthquakes have occurred in Interior Alaska about every ten years. None of them caused injury or death, but the 1948 earthquake was remembered for its damage to liquor stocks in Fairbanks.
Many tiny earthquakes occur each month in the Fairbanks area.
Previously the center of activity was in the Badger Road area. New commercial buildings in Fairbanks are required to conform to the 1973 Uniform Building Code which places the city in a high seismic risk zone.