A 7.9 Alaska earthquake struck Tuesday but no tsunamis made landfall.

 

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck off Kodiak Island in Alaska on Tuesday which prompted a tsunami warning.

The National Weather service sent messages to cellphones in Alaska that read “Emergency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland.”

National Tsunami Center Officials cancelled the warning after waves failed to arrive and no serious damage has been reported.

Officials warned citizens to evacuate if they lived in low-lying areas. Residents scrambled to safety, with some seeking refuge in schools which were transformed into shelters.

The City of Kodiak was projected to see its first wave after an hour, but there were no reports of waves 90 minutes after the quake.

Lt. Tim Putney of the Kodiak Police Department said: “We haven’t seen anything yet or had any reports of a wave,” AJC reported.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said that the quake had been felt in several communities on the Kenai Peninsula in Southern Alaska, but added that there were no reports of damage.

Larry LeDoux who is superintendent of the Kodiak Island Borough School District said that schools were open as shelters and estimated that there were about 500 people in the high school.

There were no reports of damage caused by the earthquake even on Kodiak Island, the closest populated land to the earthquake’s epicenter. Officials called the post-earthquake evacuation and preparedness a “huge success.”

The earthquake brought back memories of Alaska’s 1964 earthquake which killed 129 people and devastated the landscape. The 1964 earthquake created tsunami’s that reached land and was responsible for much of the devastation.

Scientists explained this recent earthquake was a strike-slip earthquake where the continental plates moved horizontally and not under each other. Fortunately for Alaska, strike-slip earthquakes are less likely to cause tsunamis .