This content was published on July 29, 2021 – 07:52
Washington, Jul 29 (EFE) .- An earthquake of magnitude 8.2 on the Richter scale shook the Aleutian Islands of Alaska (USA) tonight and caused the issuance of a tsunami warning for Hawaii.
The National Geological Survey of the United States (USGS) indicated that the tremor registered around 10:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday (06:15 GMT) near Sandpoint, in the eastern Aleutians, in the ocean and at a depth of 32 kilometers.
Although earthquakes at that depth are felt less strongly than shallow ones, the US National Weather Service’s tsunami warning system issued a watchdog warning for the next few hours on the Hawaiian islands.
The earthquake was accompanied by half a dozen minor tremors and different depths in the same region, about 120 kilometers from Chignik (Alaska), among which the next strongest reached a magnitude of 6.2 and whose hypocenter was recorded 42 kilometers from the surface.
The shallowest of them, 5 kilometers deep, reached a magnitude of 5.6 and was recorded at 10:32 p.m. local time.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announced that “an investigation is underway” to determine if there is a real tsunami threat to Hawaii.
A tsunami watch has also been issued for the Alaska Peninsula.
According to preliminary seismic data, the largest of these earthquakes could have been widely felt by almost everyone in the epicenter area and could have caused slight or moderate damage, but it is a very sparsely populated area.
It is estimated that the tremors could have been moderately felt in Perryville, a town of a hundred inhabitants located about 100 kilometers from the epicenter, and in Chignik, 115 kilometers away and with only 87 inhabitants. EFE
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