Communities along a 700-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast ordered their residents to higher ground after a powerful earthquake, but officials quickly downgraded and then canceled a tsunami warning in the area.

A major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 has triggered a tsunami warning for the southern Alaska peninsula.

A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on the afternoon of July 16, sparking immediate tsunami warnings for nearby coastal communities. The tremor, recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),