An 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, roughly 97 km southeast of the town of Chignik, triggering a tsunami warning for large parts of Alaska early Thursday morning, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System.
People as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand are also under a tsunami watch after the enormous earthquake, which hit at 10:21 p.m. local time, 2:21 a.m. ET. There are no immediate reports of damage from the earthquake.
The 8.2 quake, originally reported as an 8.1, occurred roughly 18 km deep, according to the National Weather Service’s National Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska.
As Mike Baker of the New York Times points out on Twitter, there have only been 17 earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 8.2 or higher since 1990. Put simply, this is a huge quake.
If a tsunami does reach faraway lands it will be quite some time, as the New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency notes on Twitter.
“We are assessing whether the M8.1 ALASKA PENINSULA earthquake poses any tsunami threat to New Zealand. If a tsunami has been generated it is not likely to arrive in New Zealand for at least 12 hours hours,” the agency tweeted early Thursday.
This is a breaking news post that is being updated….