Alaskan earthquake prompts tsunami watch along the coast

Quake was southeast of Kodiak

A tsunami watch warning was issued for the coast of Washington early Tuesday morning after an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude rocked Alaska, followed by another quake.

“We are still under a tsunami watch. The original 8.2 earthquake was downgraded to a 7.9 however another 7.0 earthquake has impacted the Alaska area,” said Charles Wallace, Grays Harbor Emergency Management deputy director.

“The National Tsunami Warning Center is evaluating impacts as they receive them and we should have more information from them shortly,” Wallace said in a email alert at 3:36 a.m.

The impact was predicted to be at about 5 a.m., but the first assessment was that a tsunami threat was not imminent. Later, the U.S. Tsunami Warning System updated the information to “no tsunami warning, watch or threat.”

The earthquake was reported at 1:31 a.m. and located about 175 miles southeast of Kodiak City. It was recorded at a depth of 12 miles, according to the Tsunami Warning System.

The town of Adak, Alaska was evacuated after the first tsunami warning, but there were no reports of damage. The tsunami warning had included the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and southern Oregon.