Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A powerful magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook the Gulf of Alaska early Tuesday, leading to a short-lived tsunami watch for the West Coast, from Washington to California.
The quake struck at 4:31 a.m. EST about 330 miles off the Alaskan coast, southeast of Kodiak Island -- the result of a strike slip faulting within the shallow lithosphere of the Pacific plate, the United States Geological Survey said.