Earthquake Rocks Alaskan Mountains With Mile-Long Landslides and Destruction
On December 6, 2025, the St. Elias mountain range was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the Canadian Yukon/ Alaska border.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake's epicenter was roughly 230 miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles west of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Hundreds of aftershocks were recorded following the initial quake, with the largest measuring 5.7 in magnitude.
There was no Tsunami warning with the quake and, luckily, no immediate reports of damage or injury, but folks as far as Whitehorse reportedly felt it. The closest communities to the earthquake's epicenter are Haines Junction, Yukon (80mi), and Yakutat, Alaska (56mi), which have small populations of just over 1,000 and 662 people, respectively.
Despite no catastrophic outcomes to the nearby communities, the earthquake certainly didn't leave the St. Elias range unscathed. The earthquake was caused by a strike-slip event, which is when the two sides of a fault slide past one another horizontally. In this case, movement occurred on the northernmost end of the Fairweather Fault, which does not have much previously recorded seismic activity.
The earthquake's epicenter was recorded to be 6 miles below the Hubbard Glacier, which is North America's largest tidewater glacier.
On Friday, December 12th, the Yukon Geological Survey flew to the site of the earthquake to document landslide and avalanche activity caused by the quake, and to determine if the fault ruptured the ground surface. Click the arrows on the embedded post below to see the dramatic images of the damage. Some of the debris was dispersed over a three-mile-long by one-mile-wide area.
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Despite 2m of fault slip recorded at a depth of 5km, YGS didn't find any evidence of surface rupture, although it's possible a rupture was hidden by glacial ice. The earthquake did, however, trigger numerous landslides, largely on the slopes of Mt. King George.
There were also slides observed on the nearby slopes of Mt. Logan, Mt. Vancouver, and other surrounding sub-peaks. Further from the quake's epicenter, snow and ice avalanches were observed more frequently than landslides. Seracs and ice falls were also frequently seen toppled and broken, and the earthquake caused widespread damage to glacial ice.
Images shared by YGS show landslides and avalanches from Mt. King George and surrounding peaks with debris flows of up to 6km (3.7 miles) and widths of up to 1800m (5,900 ft.).
"It is fortunate that this event did not occur during mountaineering season, as earthquake-triggered serac falls and avalanches have caused fatalities in the past. The damage to ice in the region and persistent rockfall from landslides scars may pose new additional hazards for mountaineering and skiing expeditions in the area," read the caption of a social media post from the YGS.
The Wrangell- St. Elias range and nearby Chugach range are both famous ski mountaineering destinations in Alaska, known for having numerous massive peaks, remote access, and length peak-to-sea ski descents. Notably, Cody Townsend, Dan Corn, Nick Russell, and Bjarne Salen attempted to ski Mt. St. Elias in 2021 and documented the attempt in Townsend's FIFTY Project series.