The giant earthquake was recorded at 12:37 p.m. local time, southeast of Sand Point, a community located on Popof Island in the Aleutian Chain.

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.

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.

I’ve got liquid smoke and barbecue sauce and pickles ... broken on the floor,” the manager of the local general store said. “It smells horrendous in here.”

The quake that struck Alaska’s southern coast on Wednesday, July 16 is part of a larger sequence that may continue to unfold in destructive ways.