A strong earthquake occurred on Wednesday off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday and caused a brief tsunami alert from the authorities, which are not afraid of major damage.
The epicenter of this 7.3 magnitude earthquake is located in the Pacific Ocean, 87 km south of Sand Point, a small village in the Alaska peninsula, according to the American Geophysical Institute (USGS).
The authorities have issued a tsunami alert for a large coastal region, not populated and wild enough in the southwest of Alaska, covering more than 1100 km. It was lifted a little less than two hours later.
Several towns and villages in the alert zone first sounded their alarm sirens and asked their inhabitants to take refuge in height or in the land.
At the end of the afternoon on Wednesday, the authorities said there was no more danger.
‘You can return to your homes,’ announced the village of Unalaska in a press release for its residents.
The Kodiak emergency operations center, one of the most populous cities in the area with its 5,200 inhabitants, also decreed the ‘end of the alert’.
‘The risk of victims and damage is low’, estimated the USGS in a bulletin. ‘Overall, the population of this region lies in structures resistant to seismic tremors, although there are vulnerable structures.’
Located in the Pacific Fire belt, Alaska is very exposed to earthquakes.
The worst earthquake of its recent history in 1964, had also occurred off its coast, with a magnitude of 9.2.
He had caused the death of more than 130 people, devastating the city of anchorage and triggering a tsunami which had struck the Gulf of Alaska, as well as the west coast of the United States and Hawaii.
In July 2023, another earthquake of magnitude 7.2 occurred off the Alaska peninsula, without making victims.
/ATS
