i m here at the university of alaska anchorage campus. we re happy to report that there s no injuries here. we did close our campus. we do have some damage in some of our buildings but i think it s going to be manageable. our emergency or incidents management team is in full activity. we have planned for events like this. i can tell you, it will quite shaker. i m originally from california. i experienced the loma earthquake. this was very strong. this was close to anchorage and the duration went or for quite some time. we re fortunate it could have been worse. shepard: we re hearing that kind of stuff. for a 7 magnitude quake, pretty serious stuff. the fact that we had no reported deaths or serious injuries yet and i hope that stays it s
california, seismologist lucy jones. lucy, first of all, for people in alaska, what should people there expect in the immediate aftermath? aftershocks. that is magnitude 7.0 so we expect the largest aftershock to be close to magnitude 6 and in fact larger than that. they had a 5.8 and should expect to feel things. for the people relatively near to the earthquake, right? so fairbanks may have felt it and then the shaking s pretty extreme. it s intensity eight. that s a description of shaking level. the shaking here is basely like what would have been experienced in 1989 in the loma earthquake in san francisco and this is even closer to anchorage than that or quite close to san francisco. what should people do right now who are in alaska? just be aware. 5% of the time the aftershock
caller: yeah. something like that. it s pretty small. of course, if it s high tide then there will be a little more effect. in general, unless you are in a bay like crescent city, they can have more of a problem because it tends to resinate. a previous large earthquake in the united states, the last one we can remember is 6.9, the one in loma priya that i have been talking about. a way to understand in the united states a large earthquake. 6.9 compared to 8.9, cha they are reporting in japan, it s a difference of 100-fold, right? caller: no, it s more than that. in terms of energy, each magnitude is a factor of 30. it s 900 times larger. just energy wise. caller: in terms of energy
this, as the warnings come out to them there could be a six to seven foot tsunami wave hitting them at around 3:00 a.m. local time. about four hours from now. so, we hope the best for them. we are watching that. if you are just joining us, straight to the update in terms of what we know right now, an 8.9 earthquake hitting off the coast. the northeast coast of japan. this only about 230 miles northeast of tokyo. on this map here, you can see the epicenter and the red circle at 230 miles southwest of that is where tokyo is. 13 million people as the buildings were shaking, 8.9 magnitude earthquake. roughly an hour later, tsunami waves hitting the coast of
breaking news here on msnbc. watch what s happening in japan. if you are just joining us, let me give you what we know right now. here at 4:57 a.m. eastern time. we have heard reports there hannan 8.9 earthquake. that number may change but an 8.9 magnitude earthquake. now, they have had aftershocks since. an hour after they had the earthquake, about five hours ago, they then experienced a tsunami wave. that was the first. this is the afteraffect. this is where the epicenter is. tokyo not too far away. the tsunami wave going through all the farmlands of japan and taking down anything in its way. there have been several aftershocks we continue to