Tsunami in Pacific, Alaska , U.S West cost with 7.2 Maginude

A tsunami warning was canceled after briefly in effect after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rattled Alaska's sparsely populated Fox Islands Thursday night.

According to latest information posted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the quake struck at around 06:10 p.m. local time Thursday (0310 GMT, Friday). The focus is at a depth of 62.6 km in the Pacific Ocean, 64 km southwest of Amukta Island and 1,677 km from Anchorage, the largest city in the U.S. state.

The USGS first said the quake was 7.4 magnitude on the Richter scale, then lowered it to 7.2.

There have been so far no reports of injuries or damages.

A Tsunami warning issued by the U.S. West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center was briefly in effect for coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass to Amchitka Pass, two straits located in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

The center later canceled the warning after it determined waves from the earthquake posed no wide spread destructive threats.

"No destructive tsunami has been recorded, and no tsunami danger exists along the coasts of the U.S. west coast states, Alaska, and British Columbia," said the center.

The Fox Islands are a group of islands in the eastern Aleutian Islands, which are a chain of more than 300 islands that extend southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean.

The earth's most active seismic belt, the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, brushes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, where more earthquakes occur than in the other 49 U.S. states combined.

Friday, June 24, 2011 by deivam P Mohanraj · 0