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Magnitude 8.7 quake off Russia’s east coast prompts warnings, evacuations in dozens of countries.
Tsunami waves have hit parts of Russia and Japan after a massive earthquake off the Russian coast, with alerts issued for dozens of other countries, including the United States.
Waves of up to 4 metres high (13 feet) struck Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka region early on Wednesday, said Sergei Lebedev, the regional minister for emergency situations.
Severo-Kurilsk, a seaport town in Sakhalin Oblast, was flooded, forcing the evacuation of its 2,000 residents, Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies and Disaster Relief said.
Videos posted on Russian social media appeared to show buildings in the town submerged in water.
Potentially hazardous waves were expected to hit parts of the United States, much of coastal Latin America, and numerous Asian and Pacific island states later on Wednesday.
The US National Weather Service issued tsunami “warnings” for the state of Hawaii and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, and lower-level tsunami advisories for parts of California, including Los Angeles and Oregon, with waves expected to arrive from the late afternoon on Wednesday.
Less serious tsunami watches were in place for the entire US West Coast.
The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management in Hawaii urged the evacuation of residents in some coastal areas.
“Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected,” the agency said on X.
The emergency agency in Hawaii said it expected the first waves to arrive at 7:10pm local time on Tuesday (05:00 GMT, Wednesday).
US President Donald Trump urged residents in Hawaii, Alaska, and along the Pacific Coast to pay attention to tsunami-related advisories.
“STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!” Trump said in a social media post.
Japanese authorities said they expected waves as high as 3 metres (9.8 ft) to hit some coastal areas.
“People in coastal areas or along rivers should immediately evacuate to safe places such as high ground or evacuation buildings,” the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a statement.
“Tsunamis can strike repeatedly. Do not leave the safe location until the warning is lifted.”
Footage posted on social media showed residents of some Japanese coastal communities moving to higher ground.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba urged the public to evacuate from areas under warning.
Japanese media reported the arrival of the first waves, measuring about 30cm (1 ft) high, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Wednesday morning.
Alerts were also issued for the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the 8.8-magnitude quake, one of the biggest on record, struck 136km (85 miles) east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s far east.
The USGS revised the intensity of the quake up from an earlier estimate of 8.0.
Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on Telegram that the quake was the “strongest in decades”.
The regional health minister, Oleg Melnikov, told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency that several people had been injured in the quake, but none of them seriously.
Subsequent quakes of magnitude 6.9 and 6.3 were recorded 147km (91 miles) and 131km (81 miles) southeast of Petropavlovsk and Vilyuchinsk, respectively, in Russia’s far east, according to the USGS.
Robert Weis, a tsunami expert at Virginia Tech, said the tsunamis could potentially do serious damage.
“It is correct to be worried about this one,” Weis told Al Jazeera.
“Three metres is pretty destructive,” he said.
