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WASHINGTON – A shallow 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the Alaskan peninsula late yesterday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, prompting a tsunami warning.
The earthquake hit 91km southeast of the town of Perryville, the USGS said, with a tsunami warning in effect for south Alaska and the Alaskan peninsula.
The US government issued a tsunami warning for Alaska’s southeast.
“Hazardous tsunami waves for this earthquake are possible within the next three hours along some coasts,” the US Tsunami Warning System said in a statement.
Perryville is a small village about some 800km from Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city.
A 7.5-magnitude earthquake caused tsunami waves in Alaska’s southern coast in October, but no casualties were reported.
Alaska is part of the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire.
Alaska was hit by an earthquake measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale in March 1964, the strongest ever recorded in North America. It devastated Anchorage and unleashed a tsunami that slammed the Gulf of Alaska, the US west coast, and Hawaii.
More than 250 people were killed by the quake and the tsunami.
Meanwhile, Bernama cited a Sputnik report as saying that the Japan Meteorological Agency is studying the possible impact of the earthquake.
Japanese meteorologists are not excluding the possibility of a tsunami near the country's archipelago as a consequence of the earthquake, the Kyodo news agency said. – AFP, July 29, 2021
