Tsunami warning issued after magnitude 7.5 earthquake off southeastern Alaska
A tsunami warning issued Monday after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake off southern Alaska was downgraded to an advisory by evening.
The 12:54 p.m. quake was centered 62 miles southeast of Sand Point, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported, about 575 miles southwest of Anchorage.
While the stretch of coastline under warning is sparsely populated and little damage was reported, communities along the southern coast did feel the temblor, reported WKBN-TV.
“It was a pretty good shaker here,” David Adams, co-manager of Marine View Bed and Breakfast in Sand Point, told WKBN. “We’re doing OK.”
Another resident said the water “kind of shaking and shimmering.”
“All the couches, recliners and bookcases were moving around, and I had to pretty much hold one of them up,” Michael Ashley of Cold Bay told the Anchorage Daily News.
A 5.2-magnitude aftershock occurred 11 minutes later, WKBN reported, citing the Alaska Earthquake Center.
That earthquake itself was an aftershock from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in the same area in July, State Seismologist Michael West told the Anchorage Daily News. He said further aftershocks would continue for days.
The earthquake’s strength was normal for the level of seismic activity and Alaska’s position on the tectonic plates, USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso told WKBN.
“This is an area where the Pacific Plate is subducting underneath the North American Plate,” he told WKBN. “And because of that, the Pacific Plate actually goes underneath the North American Plate, where it melts. And so we commonly have large, magnitude 7 earthquakes in that area.”
It’s also the reason the region has so many volcanoes, he noted.
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