A magnitude 8.8 earthquake has struck Russia’s Far East, damaging buildings and triggering a tsunami, prompting warnings and evacuations across the Pacific Ocean.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said the tsunami struck and flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk in the Sakhalin region, where about two thousand people were evacuated.
Several people were injured in Russia by the quake, state media reported, but none of them have serious injuries.
Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said the quake was the most powerful since 1952. He added that “strong, perceptible aftershocks will last for at least a month”.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 19.3 kilometres and its epicentre was 119 kilometres from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The regional branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said 30 more tremors with magnitudes of 2-5 were recorded off the Kamchatka peninsula after the main quake.
Japan’s meteorological agency said it expected tsunami waves up to three metres high, with authorities urging people to seek higher ground.
A tsunami warning was also issued in the US.
According to the warnings, waves reaching more than three metres are possible along some coasts of Russia and Ecuador, while waves 1-3 metres high are possible in Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the Solomon Islands. Smaller waves are possible along the coasts of most of the Pacific Ocean, including the west coast of the USA.
Kamchatka and the Russian Far East are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.