Unalaska, AK – Dozens of earthquakes have rocked the far western Aleutians over the past several weeks, most recently early Tuesday morning near Amchitka Island. The quakes thus far have been confined to this mostly uninhabited part of the island chain. But the largest, on Saturday and also near Amchitka, was felt by residents of Adak Island. Adak is 200 miles east of Amchitka and home to about 300 people.

Saturday's earthquake had a magnitude of 6.7, and most of the others' have been measured at about 5. Paul Whitmore, director of the National Weather Service's West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, said that this kind of quake series is not uncommon along the Aleutian chain.

Whitmore says that even the earthquake on Saturday wasn't strong enough to warrant a tsunami warning, which his center issues for earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or higher. By comparison, the earthquake that triggered the devastating South Asian tsunami in December 2004 had a magnitude between 9.1 and 9.3.

Earthquakes are relatively common in the Aleutian Chain because the islands sit along what's known as the Aleutian-Alaska Megathrust, the boundary between the North American tectonic plate and the Pacific Ocean plate. Two of the eight largest earthquakes in the past century have occurred in the Aleutians.