A magnitude 7.5 earthquake prompted a tsunami warning for nearly thousand-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast, with waves over 2 feet

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake prompted a tsunami warning for nearly thousand-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast, with waves over 2 feet at the nearest community as the threat subsided.

The quake was centered near Sand Point, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center. The warning was downgraded to an advisory just over two hours after the quake hit.

Earthquake

“It was a pretty good shaker here,” said David Adams, co-manager of Marine View Bed and Breakfast in Sand Point. “You could see the water kind of shaking and shimmering during the quake. Our truck was swaying big time.”Adams didn’t take any photos or video: “It just kind of happened all of a sudden.”

The quake struck in the North Pacific Ocean just before 1 p.m. It was centered about 67 miles (118 kilometers) southeast of Sand Point, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

The quake was felt widely in communities along the southern coast, including Sand Point, Chignik, Unalaska and the Kenai Peninsula, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center, which said a magnitude 5.2 aftershock was reported 11 minutes later, centered roughly in the same area.

Earthquake

Patrick Mayer, superintendent of the Aleutians East Borough School District, said parents picked up their children from Sand Point School, which also served an evacuation point.

The size of the quake was originally reported to have been a magnitude of 7.4, but was revised to a 7.5, said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He said an earthquake of this size, in this area, is not a surprise.