Medical Definition of leach. 1  1: to subject to the action of percolating liquid (as water) in order to separate the soluble components. 2  2: to dissolve out by the action of a percolating liquid. 3  intransitive verb.
The Pacific Plate is moving northwestwardly under the North American Plate at a rate of approximately 2.5 inches per year, resulting in many fault lines. Earthquakes are very common and there are an average of 50-100 earthquakes throughout Alaska--daily! In fact, Alaska has more earthquakes per year than all other U.S. states combined! The picture above, taken in Portage, Alaska near Anchorage, is one of the many remnants of the famous 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake. The magnitude 9.2 quake which shook South-Central Alaska on March 27, 1964 at 5:36 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, lasted for over four minutes and was felt around the world.
(CNN)-- Alaskans were shaken up -- but not, it seems, rattled -- by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake and more than a dozen aftershocks that struck in the state Thursday. The U.S. Geological Survey noted that the biggest tremor struck at 9:51 a.m. local time (1:51 p.m. ET), centered some 80 miles northwest of Anchorage. Its large magnitude was balanced out, somewhat, by how far down it occurred -- 64 miles deep, according to the USGS. Normally, we don't have large magnitude quakes this deep, said Alaska Earthquake Information Center seismologist Natalia Ruppert, noting that the tremor was felt strongly in Fairbanks and as far south as Kodiak. Because it was that deep, it didn't cause as much damage as a shallower quake..