A powerful earthquake off Alaska’s southern coast jolted sparsely populated coastal communities late Tuesday, and some residents briefly fled to higher ground over fears of a tsunami.
There were no immediate reports of damage in the Alaska Peninsula and the tsunami warning was canceled after the magnitude 7.8 quake offshore produced a wave of a less than a foot (30 centimeters).
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake struck Tuesday at 10:12 p.m. local time and was centered in waters 65 miles (105 kilometers) south-southeast of the tiny community of Perryville, at a depth of 17 miles (28 km).
Because of the temblor's location, some nearby Alaska Peninsula communities did not experience shaking that would normally be associated with the quake's magnitude, said Michael West, Alaska state seismologist.
Residents in some small towns within a hundred miles (160 kilometers) of the quake reported very strong shaking and some shaking was felt more than more than 500 miles (805 kilometers) away in the Anchorage area, West said.
The tsunami warning prompted coastal residents to evacuate to higher ground, with social media posts showing long lines of people fleeing towns like Homer and Kodiak as tsunami sirens wailed in the background.
On Kodiak Island about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of where the earthquake was centered, the local high school and the Catholic church opened their doors for evacuees and the school parking lot was declared a safe zone, with some people staying in their cars with pets until it was safe to go home.
Such tsunami warnings are commonplace in Alaska coastal communities, similar to tornado warnings elsewhere in the U.S. that prompt people to take shelter.
On Tuesday night, Gerry Cobban Knagin took video of the parking lot scene at Kodiak Aleutian Regional High School, where 300 or 400 other people were sheltering.
Officials at the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, began calling off the tsunami advisories and warnings after a wave of less than 1 foot (30 centimeters) was recorded in the community of Sand Point.
Tuesday’s quake was more powerful than the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that caused damage in the Anchorage area in November 2018.
More than a dozen aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or higher were reported immediately after the earthquake, he said from the Alaska Earthquake Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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