JUNEAU, Alaska, Jan 5: A powerful earthquake sparked a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of Alaskan and Canadian coastline, but the alert was canceled when no damaging waves were generated.
The magnitude 7.5 quake and tsunami warning that followed caused concern in some coastal communities, with alarms sounding and people rushing to higher ground for safety.[break]
But the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center later said the waves were too small to pose a threat, reaching just six inches above normal sea level in places such as Sitka and Port Alexander.
"Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit of panic," Sitka Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt told The Associated Press in a phone interview. But he said things calmed down as the town waited for the all clear.
The temblor struck at midnight Friday and was centered about 60 miles (95 kilometers) west of Craig, Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
"Houses shook; mine had things tossed from (the) wall," Craig Police Chief Robert Ely said. But he added that there were "no reports of any injuries, no wave, no tidal movement seen."
The tsunami warning was eventually expanded to include coastal areas from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada — an area extending more than 700 miles (1,125 kilometers).
The center had warned that "significant widespread inundation of land is expected," adding that dangerous coastal flooding was possible.
In its cancellation statement, the center said that some areas were seeing just small sea level changes.
"A tsunami was generated during this event but no longer poses a threat," the center said.
The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said the quake was widely felt but it received no reports of any damage.
"It was the most intense earthquake I´ve felt in my 10 years here. I´m pretty sure there was stuff falling off of shelves," Chief Schmitt said. "There is no report of any wave activity here."
He said that an evacuation sirens and announcements came shortly after the quake, prompting the temporary rush to higher ground.
Some people in Craig also moved to safer territory.
"Several citizens elected on their own to move to higher ground. Several locations in Craig were set up for staging (and) shelter," said Chief Ely, adding that "no evacuation was ordered."
In addition to the warning, a tsunami advisory was briefly in effect for some Alaska coastal areas to the north of the warning zone, as well as to the south of the zone, from the Washington state border to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
A tsunami warning means an area is likely to be hit by a wave, while an advisory means there may be strong currents, but that widespread inundation is not expected to occur.
7.7-magnitude quake hits off Alaska, triggers local tsunami
(AFP)
WASHINGTON: A major 7.7-magnitude earthquake shook an area in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the US state of Alaska early Saturday, triggering a potentially destructive local tsunami, the US government said.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 0858 GMT, was located 102 kilometers (63 miles) west of Craig, Alaska at a depth of nine kilometers (5.5 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey.[break]
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a local and possibly destructive tsunami has been generated by the quake.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the US center said in a statement. "It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter."
It added that "no tsunami threat exists for other coastal areas in the Pacific, although some other areas may experience small non-destructive sea-level changes lasting up to several hours."
Homes were shaken in Alaska´s state capital of Juneau some 205 miles (330 kilometers) away, The Juneau Empire newspaper reported. But there was apparently no major damage to the city, the largest in the area.
Juneau resident Archie Hinman told the Empire the quake "shook my Juneau home violently enough to awaken the entire family. No apparent damage."
The earthquake reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.
A similar 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Canada´s Queen Charlotte Islands, located just south of the current epicenter, last October. That quake did trigger a small Pacific tsunami which eventually reached the US state of Hawaii without causing any damage.
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