Wednesday's magnitude 7.3 earthquake off Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain struck in a region that has experienced a handful of powerful quakes within the last five years.

A major earthquake off Alaska with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 has prompted a tsunami advisory for the state's southern peninsula.The tsunami advisory was downgraded from an initial tsunami warning Wednesday afternoon after the earthquake struck about 50 miles south of Sand Point,

Ground shaking was strongest in Sand Point, with reports of "objects flying out of the pantry and off of shelves," noted the Alaska Earthquake Center.