A large 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered small tsunami waves Monday, US agencies said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Residents were evacuated to higher ground when tsunami warnings covered much of the southern coast of the remote U.S. state, including the sparsely populated Alaska Peninsula, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Two-foot waves were recorded in the nearby small town of Sand Point, about 60 miles (100 km) from the epicenter of the earthquake that struck at a depth of 25 miles (40 km).
The hazard zone stretched hundreds of miles northeast to the entrance to Cook Inlet.
But it stopped short of the state’s largest city of Anchorage, located about 600 miles (1,000 km) from the epicenter and at the end of that gulf.
And the tsunami warning was downgraded to a less severe warning, with NOAA declaring that affected areas “should not expect widespread flooding.”
The earthquake itself was felt in the nearby community of King Cove on the Alaska Peninsula, but everything appeared to be intact, city manager Gary Hennigh told the Anchorage Daily News.
Cold Bay resident Michael Ashley said the earthquake was “a pretty good trip.”
“All the sofas, recliners and bookcases were moving and I had to hold one of them,” he told the newspaper.
There was “a low probability of casualties and damage” from the earthquake itself, the US Geological Survey said.
The great earthquake was followed by at least five aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater.
Monday’s earthquake came nearly three months after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck a nearby region.
Alaska is part of the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire.
The US state was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in March 1964, the strongest ever recorded in North America.
It devastated Anchorage and unleashed a tsunami that struck the Gulf of Alaska, the west coast of the United States and Hawaii.
More than 250 people died from the earthquake and tsunami.
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