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Sunday, 28 October 2012
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has issued a tsunami warning for Hawaii after a strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada late on Saturday.
"A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii," the Centre said in a bulletin. "Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property."
The epicentre of the tremor, which occurred at 8:04 pm (0304 GMT Sunday) was located 139 kilometres (86 miles) south of the town of Masset, the US Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The earthquake reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.
"A 7.7 is a big, hefty earthquake. It's not something you can ignore," Gerard Fryer, senior geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre told CNN International.
He explained that the latest tremor had occurred partly under an island, but mostly under shallow water. "I think we have to be thankful it happened where it did," Mr Fryer said. "If that were a heavily populated area, it would have caused significant damage."
"It definitely would have done significant damage if it had been under a city," the geophysicist added.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the quake was felt in Haida Gwaii Island and across a swathe of north and central British Columbia including Prince Rupert, Quesnel and Houston, with no immediate reports of damage.
The US Coast Guard in Alaska was trying to warn everyone with a boat on the water to prepare for a potential tsunami, the report said.
The Canadian paper also quoted Lieutenant Bernard Auth of the Juneau Command Centre as saying that the US Coast Guard was also working with local authorities to alert people in coastal towns to take precautions.
The earthquake reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.
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