Powerful earthquake near Alaska triggers tsunami warning
This map shows the epicenter of an earthquake near Alaska. (USGS map)
A powerful earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean south of the Alaska Peninsula on Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The 7.5-magnitude earthquake prompted the National Tsunami Center to issue a tsunami warning for south Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula.
"SOUTH ALASKA AND THE ALASKA PENINSULA, Pacific coasts from Kennedy Entrance, Alaska (40 miles SW of Homer) to Unimak Pass, Alaska (80 miles NE of Unalaska)," the National Tsunami Center said in a bulletin. "For other US and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, the level of tsunami danger is being evaluated."
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 55 miles southeast of Sand Point and about 25 miles deep, according to the USGS.
Sand Point is a community of fewer than a thousand full-time residents on an island in the Aleutian Chain, according to the city's official website.
The earthquake "was felt widely in Sand Point, Chignik, Unalaska, Manokotak, South Naknek, and the Kenai Peninsula," according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.