Magnitude 8 earthquake Hits off Alaska's Aleutian Islands

 

A magnitude 8 earthquake Monday shook the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the west, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert local, the United States Geological Survey and the Tsunami Warning Center said Pacific.

The warning covering the coastal areas of the U.S. state of Alaska from Nikolski to Attu, the center said, adding that the authorities were assessing the level of risk to other coastal areas of the United States and Canada.

The epicenter of the quake was about 23 kilometers of Little Sitkin Island, Alaska, at a depth of 114 kilometers, the USGS said (by its acronym in English). 

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington. Published in Spanish by Bill Trott)