Magnitude-7.0 quake strikes Alaska's Aleutian Islands, no tsunami alert

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (BNO NEWS) -- A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska on early Friday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. No tsunami warnings were issued.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake at 4:25 a.m. local time (1625 GMT) was centered about 57 miles (91 kilometers) east-southeast of Adak, a town and island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group. It struck about 21.4 miles (34.5 kilometers) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the islands, which are home to just over 400 people and are part of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. No tsunami watches or warnings were issued as earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 and below are unlikely to generate dangerous tsunamis.

"A widespread destructive tsunami threat does not exist based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said there was also no threat of a local tsunami that could have threatened nearby coastlines.

The sparsely populated region of Alaska, which sits on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', is occasionally struck by powerful earthquakes. Most notably, an enormous 9.2-magnitude earthquake struck north of Prince William Sound in Alaska on March 27, 1964, unleashing a tsunami which killed at least 143 people.

(Copyright 2013 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)