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.

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.