A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of southeastern Alaska around 4 am EST Saturday causing a tiny tsunami. No damage or deaths have been reported so far.

The quake occurred about 60 miles southwest of Port Alexander , according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It generated a harmless tsunami that extended more than 700 miles along the Pacific coast from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, according to the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

"Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit of panic," Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt from the coastal city of Sitka told The Associated Press.

This is not the first powerful earthquake to strike the region recenlty. In October 2012, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred approximately 205 miles to the south east of today's quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey said today's earthquake occurred as a result of shallow rocks sliding past each other on or near the place where the Pacific and North America plates meet. It also linked today's event to October's quake.

"The January 5th, 2013 earthquake is related to that Haida Gwai earthquake three months previously, and is an expression of deformation along the same plate boundary system," it said in a statement.

The USGS added that this earthquake is likely associated with movements across a major fault system in the Pacific-North America plate boundary called the Queen Charlotte fault system and located offshore of British Columbia, Canada. The area around the plate boundary has hosted 8 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater over the past 40 years.