After the tumultuous year that
was 2017, I think we were all hoping that mother nature might take a respite from her barrage of natural attacks on civilization. Last year brought with it a series of
and
that wraught havoc in America and surrounding countries. However, despite
believing that climate change is not a real threat to the world, it looks like 2018 is going to continue in a similar fashion.
This morning, large parts of Alaska and the Alaskan Peninsula have been warned about a potential tsunami after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook Alaska's Kodiak Island. The earthquake, which is one of the strongest in US
history, was recorded early on Tuesday morning and led to the entire US west coast being placed under close observation temporarily.
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Numerous warnings were sent out, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre saying: "Based on all available data a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicentre." The US National Weather Service also sent a message directly to mobile phones in Alaska, warning:
"Emergency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland."
The earthquake
was felt hundreds
of miles away in Alaska's largest city, Anchorage. Local resident Emily Carlson revealed how she felt the 'slow groan' of the tremor for around 30 seconds,
but said that the city wasn't under threat.
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"People are generally trying to stay very calm. I think people are worried and I've heard a lot of people heading to higher ground, but we're still monitoring it on social media. In the middle of the night, not everybody is by their phone."
"Where we are we are not in tsunami danger. Kodiak Island is where the earthquake is closest to and I've seen on social media people are evacuating and heading to the high school.
"Earthquakes to me are the scariest natural disaster that you could imagine because with earthquakes come tsunamis. But we live in Alaska so we hear about earthquakes all the time so while people are worried, it's very measured, they're calm, and they're just waiting to see what happens."
Officials on Kodiak have ordered residents to evacuate their homes if they live in low-lying areas. According to data from the US Geological Survey, the quake struck 256km southeast of Chiniak at a depth of 10km.
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The shallow depth of the quake is what led to the tsunami warning, but the warning has now been called off for the rest of the US west coast.
However, residents of Alaska are still on standby with the Kodiak Police Department issuing a statement
imploring residents to stay on high ground until further notice and advising them to shelter at the city's high school or local library.
While it doesn't look like the Tsunami isn't going to be anywhere near as disastrous as first feared, it does serve as a timely reminder of the threat of natural disasters - something which is only going to increase with time.
