A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, the strongest in the region since 1952, damaging buildings and generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13ft) that prompted warnings and evacuations stretching across the Pacific Ocean.
Several people were injured in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard — devastated by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in 2011 — was ordered to evacuate.
8.8-magnitude quake hit Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula at 8:24am local time (4am PKT)
Several people injured, no casualties reported
Tsunami warnings issued in Japan, Mexico, Hawaii, Ecuador, China, Chile, Costa Rica
Japan records tsunami waves across entire Pacific coast
Russian mayor says ‘everyone’ on tsunami-hit islands evacuated
Tsunami waves with a height of 10-13 feet recorded in parts of Kamchatka
“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
A tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres (10-13 ft) was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, said Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations, urging people to move away from the shoreline.
Russian authorities said a tsunami hit and flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, while local media said one wave of between three and four metres high was recorded in the Elizovsky district of Kamchatka.
The magnitude 8.8 quake struck at 8:24 am (4am PKT) off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s remote Kamchatka peninsula and was one of the 10 biggest recorded, according to the US Geological Survey.
The USGS said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km, and was centred 119 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000.
The epicentre of the earthquake is roughly the same as the massive 9.0 temblor in 1952, which resulted in a destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami, according to the USGS.
In December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed around 220,000 people in 11 nations.
“The strongest earthquake since 1952 has just occurred in the Kamchatka seismic zone … Given the scale of the event, strong aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 7.5 should be expected,” Kamchatka’s geophysical service said on Telegram.
Thirty additional tremors were recorded following the main earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula, a regional branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
Several people sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister, told Russia’s TASS state news agency.
“Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Melnikov said.
“All patients are currently in satisfactory condition, and no serious injuries have been reported so far.”
While a kindergarten was also damaged, most buildings withstood the quake, and no fatalities had been reported, the ministry added.
Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that the port in the Sakhalin town of Severo-Kurilsk and a fish processing plant there were partially flooded by a tsunami. The population has been evacuated.
“Everyone was evacuated. There was enough time, a whole hour. So everyone was evacuated, all the people are in the tsunami safety zone,” Mayor Kuril Islands district Alexander Ovsyannikov said at a crisis meeting with officials.
Authorities in Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin region declared a state of emergency in the northern Kuril Islands.
“A state of emergency has been declared in the North Kuril District, where an earthquake and tsunami occurred today,” the Sakhalin government said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team recorded that the Klyuchevskoy volcano — a highly active volcano in the region — ejected ash to a height of up to 3 km (1.8 miles) above sea level as a result of the quake, Al Jazeera reported.
“The volcano is continuing to erupt explosively at the summit. Ash emissions at altitudes up to 8km [4.9 miles] above sea level may occur at any time,” said KVERT in a statement.
KVERT has assigned an orange colour code for aviation hazards to the volcano, which indicates an increased likelihood of eruption.
Japan records tsunami waves
The whole Pacific coast of Japan has reported tsunami waves, Al Jazeera reported, citing Japanese broadcaster NHK World.
Waves as high as 60cm (1.9ft) were recorded along some parts of the coast, including Kuji Port and Hamanaka town, according to NHK.
The size of the waves has grown steadily from 20cm (0.6ft) earlier this morning, and authorities say they could reach as high as 3 metres (9.8ft).
Tsunami warning advisories will be in place across Japan for at least the next 24 hours, the Japanese broadcaster said.
