Earthquake off coast of southern Alaska triggers brief tsunami advisory

Washington: An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude hit southern Alaska Saturday which triggered a tsunami advisory by the monitoring bodies.

According to the Alaska Earthquake Centre, the earthquake was felt across the Alaskan Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and Cook Inlet region.

In Kodiak, sirens warned of a possible tsunami and sent people driving to shelters late at night.

The earthquake as per a social post by the United States Geological Survey occurred 106 kilometers south of Sand Point Alaska around 10:48 pm Saturday.

Initially, a tsunami advisory was released by the US National Weather Service saying the quake struck at a depth of 13 miles (21 kilometers). Later in an update the advisory got cancelled.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said there was no threat to the islands.

Alaska experiences thousands of earthquakes each year, most of which are too deep and too small to be felt. It is the US’s most seismically active state and location of the second-largest earthquake ever recorded, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

In 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Prince William Sound caused extensive damage throughout south-central Alaska.

The temblor late Saturday occurred in the same region as several other earthquakes over 7 magnitude in the past few years, The Center said via Twitter.

AP