Huge earthquake near Alaska felt from 800km away

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake has struck near the Alaskan peninsula, shaking buildings, but there were no immediate reports of injuries and a tsunami warning was cancelled.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit about 100 kilometres south-southeast of Perryville on Tuesday about 11.12pm (local time) at a depth of just 10 metres, according to ABC7.

A tsunami warning was issued for Alaska shortly after it struck, with the quake reportedly felt by people living up to 800 kilometres away.

The warning covered the entire island chain stretching from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula.

A tsunami advisory was posted for some areas nearby. All warnings were cancelled several hours later.

People living within the warning area were advised to “evacuate inland or to higher ground above and beyond designated tsunami hazard zones” by the National Weather Service.

Alternatively, they were to “move to an upper floor of a multi-storey building”.

On Kodiak Island, the local high school opened its doors for evacuees, as did the local Catholic school, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

“We’ve got a high school full of people," Larry LeDoux, superintendent of the Kodiak School District, told the Daily News.

"I’ve been passing out masks since the first siren sounded,” he said.

"Everything’s as calm as can be. We’ve got probably 300, 400 people all wearing masks.”

The centre said for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, there is no tsunami threat

With Associated Press

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