Thousands evacuated in Japan and Hawaii due to the tsunami triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia.

BarcelonaAn 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami on Wednesday, putting several Pacific Ocean countries on alert for several hours, including Japan, the US territories of Hawaii and Alaska, China, and Canada. At least two million people received evacuation orders in Japan early Tuesday morning, and evacuations were also ordered in areas of Hawaii, where waves of 1.2 meters were already recorded, and along the US west coast. The tsunami reached the coast of California, where the tide rose one meter above normal. But by early afternoon, the alert had been lifted in virtually all territories that feared damage.

The earthquake struck eastern Russia at 11:24 a.m. local time Wednesday (8:24 a.m. in Japan and 1:24 a.m. in Catalonia), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter was located about 130 kilometers off the coast, southeast of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula, at a depth of about 21 kilometers. This is the sixth strongest earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It is also the second strongest earthquake to hit the Russian region of Kamchatka, after a magnitude 9 quake in 1952, which caused no deaths despite waves of up to 9 meters.

On this peninsula in Russia's far east, waves of 3 and 4 meters have been detected, flooding some coastal towns and leaving several minor injuries. "Unfortunately, some people were injured as they ran outside, and one of them jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal," regional Health Minister Oleg Melnikov told the Russian news agency TASS. None of the injuries are serious, he said. In the city of Severo-Kurilsk, in the Kuril Islands, very close to Kamchatka, some boats in the port and a kindergarten were damaged, but the population had been evacuated to higher ground, so no casualties were reported, according to the region's governor.

A few hours later, the Russian authorities deactivated the tsunami threat alert, as reported by the Emergencies Minister of the Kamchatka Region, Sergei Lebedev, via Telegram.

In Hawaii, evacuation orders have also been issued, with tidal waves of 1.5 meters (5 feet) recorded on the coast of Oahu—the most populated island—and nearly two meters (6 feet) on Maui. On Maui, in the center of the archipelago, authorities cut off running water to homes as a precaution, and some coastal residents fled to higher ground after observing a rise in sea level, witnesses reported on social media and in local media.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green warned that "flooding was expected on all the islands." "We have a tsunami warning, it's the most serious warning we can have. It's not a watch, but an alert, which means the entire coast needs to be evacuated immediately," Green warned at a press conference. However, hours later, authorities in the US state lowered the alert level and in some areas allowed people to return home. According to the new alert level, a major tsunami was no longer expected, but high waves, some flooding, and strong currents were still possible. Therefore, everyone returning home was advised to drive carefully and take all necessary precautions.

Despite its magnitude, the quake was barely felt in Japan, reaching level two on the seven-level Japanese seismic scale in the cities of Kushiro, Akkeshi, Shibetsu, and Betsukai, on the southeastern tip of Hokkaido Island. However, the tsunami warning has triggered evacuation orders for 1.9 million people across the country, especially in the north. On the southern island of Hokkaido, sea levels rose to 40 centimeters, but authorities warned that they could reach 3 meters in the coming hours.

Various levels of alert across the Pacific

The tsunami hit the California coast in the morning, approximately ten hours after the earthquake struck, raising the tide by up to 1 meter above normal. Hours earlier, the California population had already been asked to stay away from the coast. Tsunami warnings were also in effect in the US states of Washington and Oregon, as well as the west coast of Canada.

Almost the entire Pacific Ocean, in fact, has reached alert levels. In the Chinese area of Shanghai, the tsunami warning was added to the threat of a typhoon that was hanging over the area and even disrupted the official trip of the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, to China. Isla was scheduled to spend the night in Shanghai, but the entourage has delayed the trip for at least a day as a precaution.

Tsunami warnings were extended to the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Zealand, and the island of Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia. But they have also reached several Latin American countries, such as Peru. However, more than twelve hours after the earthquake, no deaths or other injuries had been reported, apart from minor injuries in the Kuril Islands.

The most serious earthquake in history is still the magnitude 9.5 that occurred in 1960 in Chile, followed by a magnitude 9.2 in Alaska in 1964, the magnitude 9.1 in Sumatra in 2004, and the magnitude 2 in 2011 in the Los Angeles region of Japan. The most devastating tsunamis in history, such as the one in Indonesia in 2004 (230,000 dead) or the one in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 (18,000 deaths), were caused by earthquakes of magnitude 9.1 and 9.9, respectively. Workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant were also evacuated on Tuesday.