Tsunami warning downgraded to advisory after 7.3 earthquake rocks Alaska coast

The Brief

• The tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory after a 7.3 earthquake in Alaska.

• The warning covered a 700-mile area including Kodiak.

• King Cove officials urged residents to seek higher ground as a precaution.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The National Weather Service has downgraded a tsunami warning to an advisory along parts of Alaska’s sparsely populated southern coast after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday.

The backstory

The earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m. local time south of Sand Point, a community of about 600 people on Popof Island, in the Aleutian chain, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. The first waves were projected to land there, but the state's emergency management division said an hour after the quake that it had received no reports of damage.

The quake was felt as far away as Anchorage, almost 600 miles (966 km) to the northeast.

The National Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for an area stretching from about 40 miles (64.4 km) southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, a distance of about 700 miles (1,126 kilometers). Among the larger communities in the area is Kodiak, with a population of about 5,200. The warning was downgraded to an advisory about an hour later, and canceled just before 2:45 p.m.

In Unalaska, a fishing community of about 4,100, officials urged people in possible inundation zones to move at least 50 feet above sea level or 1 mile (1.6 km) inland. In King Cove, which has about 870 residents on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, officials sent an alert calling on those in the coastal area to move to higher ground.

The National Weather Service said in posts on social media that there was no tsunami threat for other U.S. and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, including Washington, Oregon and California.

What they're saying

."We have seen other earthquakes in the area that have not generated significant tsunami waves, but we’re treating it seriously and going through our procedures, making sure communities are notified so they can activate their evacuation procedures," division spokesperson Jeremy Zidek said.

There was some damage — in the form of broken bottles — at the Alaska Commercial general store in town. Manager Vickey McDonald said about half of the store's alcohol aisle had crashed and shattered.

"I’ve got liquid smoke and barbecue sauce and pickles ... broken on the floor," McDonald said. "It smells horrendous in here."

Dig deeper

Alaska's southern coast is earthquake-prone, and Wednesday's was the fifth in roughly the same area since 2020 exceeding magnitude 7, state seismologist Michael West said.

"Something’s moving in this area," he said. "I would not call this an isolated earthquake. It appears to be part of a larger sequence spanning the last several years."

That has the attention of seismologists, he said.

"This area has been and remains capable of larger earthquakes and earthquakes capable of significant tsunami damage," he said.

The Source

The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center, which issued the alert following the 7.3 magnitude earthquake. This story was reported from Los Angeles.