Powerful quake rocks Russia’s Far East, triggers tsunami alerts

Huge quake sends ripples across Pacific

- Agencies

A very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka coast on Wednesday triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula.

The shallow quake damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard — devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 — was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii.

By the evening, Japan, Hawaii and Russia had downgraded most tsunami warnings. But authorities in French Polynesia warned residents of several of the remote Marquesas Islands to move to higher ground and expect waves as high as 2.5 metres.

Tsunami waves began hitting the Marquesas on Wednesday but were forecast to be smaller than initially feared, local authorities said.

‘Some initial wave surges were reported on Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas, about 1,400 km northeast of Tahiti, and between five to 10 additional waves were expected in the coming hours, the high commission said.

Russian scientists said the quake in Kamchatka was the most powerful to hit the region since 1952. The US Geological Survey said it was shallow, at a depth of 20.7km, and centred 119km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no casualties in Russia, crediting solid building construction and the smooth operation of alert systems.