Hours after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska's Alutien Islands on Monday, officials called off tsunami warnings.

The National Tsunami Warning Center canceled all tsunami warnings late Monday afternoon, about four hours after the earthquake struck, The Associated Press reported.

The earthquake, which hit about 15 miles from Little Sitkin Island, Alaska, was first measured at a magnitude 7.1 but was later upgraded to an 8.0 then back to a 7.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey, according to the AP. Little Sitkin Island is in the Bering Sea, about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage.

AP reported that the quake caused no damage in the town of Adak, one of the closest inhabited areas. Though when tsunami warnings were issued, Adak officials evacuated the town's 150 residents to higher ground, Adak City Manager Layton Lockett told the AP.

"We're seeing water leave our bay, so we do have everybody up on the Bering Hill area, where our primary evacuation center is at," Lockett said.

After the warning was canceled, he said everyone in town should remain alert. If the threat of a tsunami were to reappear, a siren would sound.

"We will expect everyone to go back on the hill ASAP," he said.

Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told the AP that about 200 miles west of Adak, a tsunami wave of about 7 inches was reported. The wave diminished the further it traveled, reaching only a couple of inches by the time it reached the town. 

Up to 17 aftershocks were reported, according to a CNN report. Dave Nyland, a geophysicist at the National Tsunami Warning Center, told AP that the aftershocks were too small to trigger a tsunami.

Lockett said the shaking from the earthquake put it firmly in the top 10 of those felt recently.

"Everybody in our building went out, watching the vehicles shake and waiting for it to end," he told AP.