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Iain Gilbert Sharecast News
23 Jan, 2018 11:35

Alaskan earthquake triggers tsunami warning

A tsunami alert has been issued after an earthquake was recorded off the coast of Alaska.

The 7.9-magnitude quake was recorded roughly 300km south-east of the Alaskan city of Kodiak at a depth of 10km at 0930 GMT.

The US National Weather Service announced that a warning was in effect for the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska.

Officials in Anchorage, Alaska have warned of an "extraordinary threat to life or property," and warned residents to seek refuge on higher ground.

The NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned that "widespread hazardous tsunami waves were possible".

In 1958, an earthquake along the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle loosened about 40 million cubic yards of rock above Lituya Bay and plunged from 3,000 feet into the waters of Gilbert Inlet.

The wave swept over the spur of land that separates Gilbert Inlet from the main body of Lituya Bay and continued down the entire length of Lituya Bay, over La Chaussee Spit and into the Gulf of Alaska, removing all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1,720 feet above sea level - the highest wave ever recorded from a tsunami.

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