Major quake rocks Alaska; officials cancel tsunami warning

An major earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 has rocked portions of Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The U.S. Geological Service issued, then canceled, a tsunami warning for Alaska's Aleutian Islands. USGS also lowered the magnitude to 6.8

Updated at 9:25 a.m. ET: The Aleutian Islands are no stranger to earthquakes. Agence France-Presse reports that the islands sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a "horseshoe-shaped seismic belt 25,000 miles long where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur."

Updated at 9:00 a.m ET: The USGS has lowered the magnitude of the quake to 6.8.

Updated at 8:50 a.m . ET: The tsunami warning was canceled after only a small wave was recorded near Atka, Alaska, the Associated Press reports. "In Atka, they had a little bump of a wave, but nothing of any kind of a destructive power. Just a wave," said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security.

Updated at 8:27 a.m. ET: The tsunami warning has been canceled.

Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: AP reports that a woman who answered the phone at the city hall in Unalaska but declined to give her name said people at Dutch Harbor were awakened by sirens. 

"We have some people on high ground, but not a lot," she said. "Sirens woke us all up — everybody's moving."

Updated at 8:07 ET: CNN reports that the shallow depth of the quake -- 6.2 miles -- would make it capable of causing damage. It struck, however, in a sparsely populated part of the Aleutian Islands, the Geological Survey said.

Updated at 7:55 a.m. ET: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is urging all coastal residents within the tsunami warning area to move inland to higher ground and away from all harbours and inlets, including those directly sheltered from the sea.

People who felt the earth shake may see unusual wave action or may see the water level rising or receding. If so, they may have only a few minutes before the arrival of a tsunami, NOAA warned.

Original post: The USGS says the earthquake struck in the waters southeast of Atka, Alaska, in the north-Pacific island chain at about 6:55 a.m. ET, and there are no initial reports of injuries or damage, Reuters reports.

The tsunami warning is in effect for coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass to Amchitka Pass. The areas are very remote and not heavily populated, according to Jessica Sigala, geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colo.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it did not see a threat of a Pacific-wide destructive tsunami from the quake.