ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A tsunami warning that was issued Wednesday from just east of Unalaska to Kodiak, due to a large earthquake south of Sand Point, has been canceled.
The large earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m. Alaska time, triggering the warning, but by 1:50 p.m. was lowered to an advisory, and by 2:45 p.m., it was canceled outright.
A small, non-damaging tsunami was generated and observed in Sand Point following the earthquake.
The National Tsunami Warning Center forecasted the first waves to hit Sand Point after 1 p.m., then Cold Bay around 2:30, followed by Kodiak at 2:40 p.m.
The Kodiak Emergency Operations Center reported a six-inch wave which was confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The center could not confirm where the wave was detected.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported that personnel on Base Kodiak are evacuating to higher ground and have launched two ready aircrews.
The quake was measured at magnitude 7.3 with an epicenter near Sand Point along the Aleutians, about 83 miles southeast of King Cove.
The Alaska Earthquake Center has recorded more than 20 aftershocks since the initial earthquake, the largest being a magnitude 5.2.
Dave Snider, a tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center, said the areas that could be impacted are Cold Bay to Kodiak and Sand Point, but he says the quake happened in shallow water so they are “not expecting a large event.”
Despite that, Snider cautioned people to stay away from the beach or water at the time of the advisory.
The tsunami impacts were originally reported to be potentially felt as close as 40 miles southwest of Homer, but were not expected to impact the Kenai Peninsula.
The Homer Police Department posted on its Facebook page that residents from the Kennedy Entrance — the waterway between the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island — to Unimak Pass are advised to head to higher ground.
The mayor of Homer told Alaska’s News Source during the warning that the city “just received an all clear for the Homer area from the Coast Guard and state homeland security.”
The mayor of Homer said people on the Spit evacuated.
“We’ve been hearing [that] initially there was a lot of like bumper-to-bumper traffic and people just trying to get you know get off the spit,” Mayor Rachel Lord said.
An alert from the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management indicated that there was no immediate danger to Anchorage.
State Seismologist Michael West explained the activity is “commonplace” after an earthquake of that magnitude, and aftershocks can be expected in the “coming days, weeks, and even months.”
“We expect the vast majority of those — if not all of those earthquakes — to be smaller in size,” he explained. “But it is true that anytime we have an earthquake of this size, there is a small percentage chance of a follow-on earthquake that is the same or significantly larger.”
Though seismic activity in the region is common —as it sits along the Pacific tectonic plate boundary with the North American plate — there has been an uptick in “geologic unrest” in recent years, according to West.
“This is the fifth earthquake exceeding magnitude 7.0 in a very small stretch of the Aleutians, just a couple hundred kilometers, since 2020,” he explained. “Clearly, something is going on.”
Debi Schmidt, the city administrator for Sand Point, told Alaska’s News Source less than an hour after the earthquake that it was the “biggest one” she’s ever felt.
“I was at home for lunch and the house was shaking and things were falling, and cupboard doors were coming open,” she said. “No damage, though.”
This is a developing story and has been updated with new information.
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