ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A strong earthquake jolted a swath of southern Alaska on Monday, sending people diving under desks and huddling in doorways but causing little damage.

The U. S. Geological Survey said the 5.4-magnitude temblor struck at 11:28 a. m. about 24 miles from the town of Willow. The rumbling lasted several minutes in Anchorage, 58 miles from the epicenter, and was felt as far south as Kenai and north to Fairbanks, a span of 300 miles.

Gov. Sarah Palin noted the earthquake on her Twitter account. “All shook up . . . thankful there are no reports of injury or damage,” she wrote.

The earthquake was 26 miles deep, a reason for both the minimal damage and the vast area over which it was felt, according to Janet Herr, an employee fielding many of the calls that residents were making to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

Anchorage has about 285,000 residents, most of the vast state’s population.

The tsunami center reported the magnitude at a slightly weaker 5.3 and said no tsunami was generated. Aftershocks shook the area, with one at about noon measuring 4.0.

The earthquake was 70 miles west of the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline, and operations were not affected, said Katie Pesznecker, a spokeswoman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. The pipeline, which carries about 715,000 barrels of crude daily, is designed to withstand magnitudes as high as 8.5, she said.

Two unrelated quakes measuring 5.6 and 5.4 struck a short while later Monday in Alaska’s remote western Aleutian Islands more than 1,000 miles to the southwest.