Earthquake off the Alaska coast triggers brief tsunami advisory

A 72 magnitude earthquake triggered a brief tsunami advisory for southern Alaska late Saturday but the advisory was cancelled about an hour later monitoring bodies reportedThe earthquake was felt widely throughout the Aleutian Islands the Alaskan Peninsula and Cook Inlet regions according to the Alaska Earthquake CenterIn Kodiak Alaska sirens warned of a possible tsunami and sent people driving to shelters late at night according to video posted to social mediaThe United States Geological Survey wrote in a social media post that the earthquake occurred 106 kilometers south of Sand Point Alaska at 1048 pm SaturdayThe quake initially was reported as 74 magnitude but downgraded to 72 soon afterThe US National Weather Service sent a tsunami advisory saying the quake occurred at a depth of 13 miles 21 kilometers The agency cancelled the advisory about an hour after the first alertBefore the cancellation the National Weather Service in Anchorage Alaska tweeted that the tsunami advisory applied to coastal Alaska from Chignik Bay to Unimak Pass but Kodiak Island and the Kenai Peninsula were not expected to be impactedThe Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said shortly after the tsunami warning went out that there was no threat to the islandsThere were an estimated eight aftershocks in the same area of Alaska including one measuring 50 magnitude within three minutes of the original earthquake KTUUTV reportedResidents were advised not to reoccupy hazard zones without clearance from local emergency officials KTUU reportedSmall sea level changes were still possible KTUU reportedAlaska experiences thousands of earthquakes each year most of which are too deep and too small to be felt It is the USs most seismically active state and location of the secondlargest earthquake ever recorded according to the Alaska Earthquake CenterIn 1964 a magnitude 92 earthquake in Prince William Sound caused extensive damage throughout southcentral AlaskaThe temblor late Saturday occurred in the same region as several other earthquakes over 7 magnitude in the past few years The Center said via TwitterThe once quiet Shumagin Gap isnt so quiet anymore the tweet saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever