Tsunami alert in Pacific after 8.7-magnitude earthquake near Russia
An earthquake of magnitude 8.7 off Russia’s eastern Kamchatka peninsula on Wednesday triggered a tsunami warning in several areas of the Pacific Ocean.
The tsunami alerts and advisories were issued for parts of Japan, Russia, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru, AFP reported. A warning was also issued for some Pacific islands and eastern China.
A tsunami hit and flooded the Russian port town of Severo-Kurilsk, where the population had been evacuated, AFP quoted the country’s emergencies ministry as saying.
It was not immediately clear if the earthquake and the tsunami had led to casualties.
Japan’s meteorological agency had said that the tsunami waves could be up to three metres high. The waves were expected to hit Japan’s Pacific coast between 6.30 am and 7.30 am Indian time.
The epicentre of the earthquake was 126 km east-southeast of Russia’s Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city, according to the United States Geological Survey.
It took place at a depth of 18.2 km. Shallow earthquakes tend to be more destructive.
This was the strongest earthquake in the region since 1952, AFP quoted Kamchatka’s geophysical service as saying. “Given the scale of the event, strong aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 7.5 should be expected,” the service...
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