(Newswire.net — January 24, 2016) — Early Sunday morning, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Alaska. Its epicenter was at a depth of about 53 miles near Cook Inlet, which is about 160 miles southwest of Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, reported the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The earthquake occurred at 1:30 a.m. Alaska time.
Twitter users have reported that they felt the earth shaking, but so far there have been no official reports of injuries or victims, reported the CNN.
A dozen homes in Kenai were evacuated because of the possibility of gas leaks.
“When it hit, it was just soft at first, and it just kept getting bigger. It was one of those moments where you didn’t’ know if it was going to get worse or if it was going to calm down,” said Joshua Veldstra, a professional photographer from Homer, Alaska.
He added that the earthquake lasted about 30 seconds. 30 minutes after the first one, two smaller earthquakes – a 4.0 and a 3.2 – struck that region again.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announced that it does not expect any major tsunami’s to be caused by the earthquake in Alaska. The good news is that there is no danger of a tsunami caused by the earthquake, the National Weather Service announced after reviewing all available data.
The last strong earthquake to hit Alaska was in July 2015. It was a 6.3-magnitude earthquake and about 141 miles southwest of Anchorage. The quake struck at a depth of 73 miles with no damage or injuries reported.
The earthquake that caused a large number of deaths and huge material damage was on March 27th, 1964. It is known as the Great Alaska Earthquake, it was a 9.2 on the Richter magnitude scale and was followed by a tsunami in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska, causing approximately 131 deaths. The duration of rupture lasted approximately four minutes.
This earthquake is the second largest earthquake ever recorded in the world. after a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile in 1960.