By Associated Press - Tuesday, April 1, 2014

EWA BEACH, Hawaii (AP) - The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says current data indicates Hawaii doesn’t face a big threat from tsunami generated by a large earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile.

Center Director Chip McCreery told reporters Tuesday geophysicists are still evaluating how much energy emanated from the magnitude-8.2 earthquake. He says they’re currently evaluating deep ocean sensors off the coast of South America to determine what level of alert to issue for Hawaii.

McCreery says hopefully the alert will be limited to an advisory. That would warn of strong currents that could threaten swimmers and potentially cause minor flooding of beaches and harbors. But advisories aren’t issued when there’s a danger of flooding on land. Advisories also don’t necessitate full evacuations.

The earthquake struck off northern Chile on Tuesday.

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