A strong earthquake near the Yukon-Alaska border early this morning was felt as far away as Whitehorse.

The 6.0 magnitude quake hit at about 5 a.m. local time, 150 kilometres southwest of Haines Junction and 100 kilometres northwest of Yakutat, Alaska.

“Magnitude 6 is considered a strong earthquake so it’s pretty significant,” said Natasha Ruppert, seismologist at the Alaska Earthquake Information Centre.

The quake woke up Whitehorse resident Doug Rutherford.

“I just felt some generalized shaking,” he said early this afternoon. That lasted about 10 seconds.

“I got up and went, ‘Yeah, it’s tapering off; it’s ended. I’m going back to sleep.’”

Neither Canada’s Department of Natural Resources nor the centre have received any reports of damage.

“It happened in the middle of nowhere,” said Ruppert. “It was quite distant from any population centres, in the wilderness and the mountains.”

Natural Resources seismologist Trevor Allen said he’s received reports from people in Whitehorse who mildly felt the temblor, and in Haines Junction, where it was felt more strongly.

After looking through historical records, Allen said it was the largest earthquake recorded in the Yakutat area, which is along the Gulf of Alaska.

A 5.6 magnitude shaker occurred there in 1965.

Ruppert said there have been more than a dozen aftershocks since the main quake, but all have been small, mostly with a magnitude of 1 or 2.

“None of the aftershocks have been felt,” she said.

Following a 6.0 magnitude quake, aftershocks may continue for at least a week but they diminish in frequency over time, Ruppert said.