8.2 degree quake off Alaska coast: strongest in 56 years, evacuations amid tsunami fears

A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck the Alaska Peninsula on Wednesday evening.said the United States Geological Survey (USGS). earthquake it generated small waves but not a large tsunami.

The earthquake struck 91 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of the city of Perryvillethe USGS said.

The earthquake struck at 10:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. GMT Thursday) on Wednesday. Perryville is a small town about 500 miles from Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska.

The US government’s National Tsunami Warning Center immediately issued a Tsunami warning for southern Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula.

He first warned of dangerous waves for the next three hours.

Corn after almost three hours, the maximum height detected by the center was eight inches (21 centimeters) and tsunami threat alerts have been downgraded to advisory.

Tsunami warning sirens had been broadcast throughout Kodiak, an island with a population of around 6,000 people, along the Alaskan coast.

In some videos posted on social networks by journalists and residents of the neighborhood, we have seen a The Kodiaks move away from the coast, with the sound of alarms in the background.

Ultimately, small waves hit the shore of Kodiak, according to a local radio announcer KMXT. He said that the authorities had lifted the evacuation orders, with no damage report.

“This is the largest earthquake to occur in the Alaska region since 1965”, said Alaska Public Media Michael west, state seismologist at the Alaska Earthquake Center.

A tsunami warning for Hawaii, where residents were advised to stay away from the beach, but two hours later it was deactivated.

they registered five aftershocks within 90 minutes of the earthquake, the largest with a magnitude of 6.2, according to the USGS.

In October, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake caused tsunami waves off the southern coast of Alaska, but no damage was reported.

Alaska is located in the “Ring of Fire” of the Pacific, an area of ​​frequent seismic activity in which tectonic plates collide.

Alaska was struck by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in March 1964, the strongest ever recorded in North America. It devastated Anchorage and generated a tsunami that swept through the Gulf of Alaska, the west coast of the United States and Hawaii.

Over 250 people lost their lives in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

(With information from AFP)