8.8-magnitude earthquake sends small tsunami into coasts of Russia, Japan and Alaska

Tokyo – One of the strongest earthquakes in the world struck the Far East of Russia early Wednesday, a rude 8.8 temblor who caused small waves of tsunami in Japan and Alaska and caused warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and the Pacific Islands to the South Zealand.

The ports of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia near the epicenter of the earthquake were flooded while the residents fled inside the land. The cars blocked the streets and highways in Honolulu a few hours before the waves of Tsunami.

People have been advised to move to higher grounds around a large part of the Pacific coast and warned that the potential danger of tsunami could last more than a day. Most places where tsunami waves have already washed on the ground have not reported any significant damage so far.

Waves less than one foot (less than 30 centimeters) above tidal levels were observed in the Alaska communities of Amchitka and Adak, said Dave Snider, a Tsunami alert coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska.

The white waves were washed on the shore on Japanese Hokkaido in the north and Ibaraki and Chiba, just northeast of Tokyo, in images broadcast on Japanese NHK public television.

A tsunami of 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) was detected in the port of Ishinomaki in northern Japan, according to the Meteorological Agency in Japan.

It was the highest measure so far among several places in northern Japan. But higher waves were still coming, said Shiji Kiyomoto, an officer of the earthquake and the tsunami in JMA.

The impact of the tsunami could last for hours – as in Adak, a community of around 70 people in the Alaska Alawish islands – or perhaps more than a day, Snider said.

“A tsunami is not just one wave,” he said. “It is a series of powerful waves over a long period. Tsunamis cross the ocean hundreds of kilometers an hour – as fast as a jet plane – in deep water. But when they get closer to the shore, they slow down and start to accumulate. And this is where this flood problem becomes a little more possible there.”

“In this case, due to the earth by essentially sending these enormous undulations of water across the ocean, they will come and come for a while”, which is why certain communities may feel effects longer, he said.

Hawaii governor Josh Green said Midway Atoll data between Japan and Hawaii have measured the waves of a peak in 6 feet (1.8 meters). He said that the waves striking Hawaii could be larger or smaller and that it was too early to say how big they would be. A tsunami of this size would be a 3-foot wave (90 centimeters) on surfing, he said.

“This is a longitudinal wave with great strength that crosses shore and in earth,” he said at a press conference.

Green said the Black Hawk helicopters have been activated and that high water vehicles were ready to go in case the authorities are to save people. “But please don’t get in danger,” he said.

The Oregon Emergency Management Ministry said on Facebook that small waves of tsunami were expected along the coast from 11:40 p.m. local time with waves between 1 and 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters). He urged people to stay away from the beaches, ports and marinas and stay in a safe place far from the coast until the council is lifted.

“It is not a major tsunami, but dangerous currents and strong waves can present a risk for those near water,” said the ministry.

A large part of the west coast covering the Canadian province of British Columbia, the state of Washington and California was also under a tsunami opinion.

A tsunami of less than 30 centimeters (less than 1 foot) had to strike parts of the island of Vancouver, British Columbia. The province’s emergency preparation agency said the waves had to reach the distant island of Langara around 10:05 pm Tuesday and Tofino around 11:30 pm, the agency said that “several waves over time” were expected.

The earthquake at 8:25 am, Japan, had a preliminary scale of 8.0, said seismologists in Japan and the United States. The US Geological Survey subsequently updated its measurement at 8.8 and the USGS said that the earthquake had occurred at a depth of 20.7 kilometers (13 miles).

The earthquake was centered over 119 kilometers (74 miles) in the east-east of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has 180,000 inhabitants, on the Kamchatka peninsula. Several replicas as strong as 6.9 followed.

The first wave of tsunami struck the severo-kurilsk coastal area, the main colony of the Kuril Russian islands in the Pacific, according to local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and stayed on high terrain until the threat of a repeated wave has disappeared.

The earthquake caused damage to buildings and cars was sworn in the streets of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which also had power outages and defaults of mobile telephone services. Russian news agencies citing the Regional Health Ministry saying that several people asked for medical aid from Kamchatka after the earthquake, but no serious injury has been reported.

The earthquake seemed to be the strongest in the world since the earthquake of March 2011 in the northeast of Japan which was 9.0 magnitude and caused a massive tsunami which triggered collapses in a nuclear power plant. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured in the world.

Tsunami’s alert disrupted transport in Japan. The ferries connecting Hokkaido and Aomori at the northern tip of the Japanese island Honshu were suspended, as well as those connecting Tokyo and the neighboring islands, and certain local train operations have been suspended or delayed, depending on the operators. Sendai airport has temporarily closed its track.

The Japanese fire and disaster management agency has said that so far no injury or damage has been reported. The agency, in response to Tsunami’s alert, published an evacuation notice to more than 900,000 residents in 133 municipalities along the Japanese Pacific coast, from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

Japanese nuclear power plants have noted any anomaly. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Hit Fukushima Daiichi, said that around 4,000 workers refute on higher grounds in the plant complex while monitoring plant safety.

The Philippine authorities warned the provinces and cities along the eastern coast against the Pacific of possible waves of tsunami under 1 meter (3 feet) and advised people to stay away from the beach and the coastal areas. “It may not be the largest of the waves, but they can continue for hours and expose people who swim in in danger,” Teresito Bacolcol said of the Philippin Institute of Volcanology and Seismology at the Associated Press.

The Mexican navy warned that the waves of tsunami will begin to reach the north coast in Ensenada, near California, around 02:22 am on Wednesday, and the waves could progress along the Pacific Coast to the state of Chiapas, around 7:15 a.m. People recommended by the navy remain away from the beaches until it suspends the alert.

New Zealand authorities have issued “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable overvoltages” along all the southern Pacific nation. The government agency for emergency management said that people should leave water, beaches and areas of the shore, and far from ports, marinas, rivers and estuaries. The waves would begin to arrive Wednesday evening, local time.

New Zealand is around 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) from the epicenter.

The earthquake has been the strongest to hit this area of the Kamchatka peninsula since 1952, according to the local branch of the geophysical investigation of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The earthquake of 9.0 on November 4, 1952, in Kamchatka, caused no damage, but no death triggered waves of 9.1 meters (30 feet) in Hawaii.

They said that even if the situation “was under control”, there was a risk of replicas, which could last up to a month and notified not to visit certain coastal areas.

Earlier in July, five powerful earthquakes – the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 – hit the sea near Kamchatka. The largest earthquake was 20 kilometers depth and was 144 kilometers (89 miles) east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

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This story has corrected the height forecasts of the waves in Oregon to between 1 and 2 feet, not 1 and 3 feet.