Latest news with #8.8-magnitude
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- Climate
- Hindustan Times
US warns its citizens against tsunami threats in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; ‘Be prepared to…'
An 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia, has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare a tsunami threat for portions of the South Pacific, including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. The US embassy has urged American nationals in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea keep an eye on official announcements, local news and and be ready to move to higher ground. Parts of the US west coast and Japan are being evacuated after a Tsunami warning following one of the strongest earthquakes in modern history hit Russia's eastern Kamchatka Peninsula./AFP (Photo by Darryl Oumi / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP) The US embassy has urged American nationals in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea keep an eye on official announcements, local news and and be ready to move to higher ground. Strong and unusual currents that could endanger people in or very close to the ocean, as well as possible dangerous coastal flooding, are all considered tsunami threats. According to the National Weather Service, the Solomon Islands may experience waves as large as three meters. Also Read: NWS issues fresh warning as US braces for possible tsunami; 'The first wave may not be the largest' US Embassy issues guidelines for its citizens After evaluating the current scenario, the US embassy has issued some recommendations for its citizens, which include: Follow local authorities' and reliable sources' updates to stay informed. If you are in a coastal area and experience intense or prolonged shaking or detect unusual sea activity, be ready to evacuate to higher ground right once. Stay away from rivers, beaches, and coastal areas until further notice. Make sure all of your emergency supplies—such as food, water, medicine, and critical documents—are prepared. Hawaii residents told to stay away from water While evacuation orders had been removed for the Big Island and Oahu, Hawaii still remained under a tsunami advisory. An advisory indicates the possibility of flooding on beaches or in harbors, along with strong currents and hazardous waves. Administrator James Barros of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency advised staying away from the sea and beach. Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, stated that the tsunami's effects can linger for hours or even longer than a day.
Business Times
30-07-2025
- Climate
- Business Times
Tsunamis hit Hawaii after 8.8-magnitude earthquake rattles Russia's far east
[TOKYO / LOS ANGELES] A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami waves of up to 5 metres nearby and sparked evacuation orders as far away as Hawaii and across the Pacific on Wednesday (Jul 30). The shallow earthquake 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. A resident in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the shaking went on for several minutes. 'I decided to leave the building,' said Yaroslav, 25. 'It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes.' Video footage released by the region's health ministry showed a team of medics in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky performing surgery as the tremors shook their equipment and the floor beneath them. A rescuer stands near a damaged kindergarten following a 8.8-magnitude earthquake, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Krai, Russia on Jul 30. PHOTO: EPA Tsunami waves struck parts of Kamchatka, partially flooding the port and a fish processing plant in the town of Severo-Kurilsk and sweeping vessels from their moorings, regional officials and Russia's emergency ministry said. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Verified drone footage showed the town's entire shoreline was submerged, with taller buildings and some storage facilities surrounded by water, which was seen pouring back into the sea. 'Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,' Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. Russian scientists said it was the most powerful to hit the region since 1952. In Hawaii, waves of up to 1.7 metres impacted the islands before the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reduced its warning level for the state around 0850 GMT, saying no major tsunami was expected. Coastal residents were earlier told to get to high ground or the fourth floor or above of buildings, and the US Coast Guard ordered ships out of harbours. Flights out of Honolulu airport resumed later, the transportation department said, while the main airport in Maui remained closed with passengers sheltering in the terminal. Tsunami waves of nearly half a metre were observed as far as California, with smaller ones reaching Canada's province of British Columbia. Warnings across the Pacific The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km, and centred 119 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000. Tsunami alarms sounded in coastal towns across Japan's Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of people. Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said. Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed scores of people on the northern island of Hokkaido on the roof of a building, sheltering under tents from the sun, as fishing boats left harbours to avoid any damage from incoming waves. Broadcaster Asahi TV reported a 58-year-old woman died when her car fell off a cliff while she was evacuating in central Japan's Mie prefecture. Automaker Nissan Motor suspended operations at some factories in Japan to ensure employee safety, Kyodo news agency reported. Three tsunami waves had been recorded in Japan, the largest of 1.3 metres, officials said. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said no injuries or damage had been reported, and there were no irregularities at any nuclear plants. Tsunami waves of 1 to 3 metres can be fatal for people who are swept away, said NHK. The US Tsunami Warning System said waves of more than three metres were possible along some coasts of Russia, the northern Hawaiian islands and Ecuador, while waves of one-3 metres were possible in countries including Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the Solomon Islands. 'Ring of fire' Russia's Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that a kindergarten was damaged but most buildings withstood the quake. No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported. Several people in Kamchatka sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister, told Russia's Tass state news agency. In Severo-Kurilsk in the northern Kuril islands, south of Kamchatka, tsunami waves exceeded three metres, with the largest up to five metres, Russia's RIA news agency reported. Alexander Ovsyannikov, the town's mayor, urged residents to assess damage to their homes and not to use gas stove heating until inspections had been carried out. Kamchatka and Russia's Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 'However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high ... as one might expect from such a magnitude,' said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service, on Telegram. 'Aftershocks are currently ongoing ... Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future. The situation is under control.' REUTERS
News18
30-07-2025
- News18
Russia's Earthquake Epicentre Kamchatka Is In Pacific Ring Of Fire: Why That Makes It More Dangerous
The Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity (earthquakes) around edges of Pacific Ocean. The quake was strongest to hit Kamchatka Peninsula since 1952 One of the world's strongest earthquakes struck Russia's Far East early Wednesday, an 8.8-magnitude temblor that caused small tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and prompted warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand. Ports on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia near the quake's epicentre flooded as residents fled inland. Cars jammed streets and highways in Honolulu hours before tsunami waves were expected. Waves less than a foot above tide levels were observed in the Alaskan communities of Amchitka and Adak, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. White waves washed up to the shoreline on Japan's Hokkaido in the north and Ibaraki and Chiba, just northeast of Tokyo, in footage aired on Japan's NHK public television. A tsunami of 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) was detected at the Ishinomaki port in northern Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. That was the highest measurement so far among several locations around northern Japan. But higher waves were still arriving, said Shiji Kiyomoto, an earthquake and tsunami response official at JMA. What is it? Strongest earthquake at Kamchatka Peninsula since 1952 The quake was the strongest to hit this area on the Kamchatka Peninsula since 1952, according to the local branch of the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The 9.0 quake on November 4, 1952, in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves in Hawaii. They said that while the situation 'was under control" there was a risk of aftershocks, which could last for up to a month and warned against visiting certain coastal areas. Earlier in July, five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — struck in the sea near Kamchatka. The largest quake was at a depth of 20 kilometers and was 144 kilometers east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Most of the active volcanoes on the Ring of Fire are present in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, the islands of Japan and Southeast Asia, and New Zealand. Kamchatka Peninsula is part of Pacific Ring of Fire: Where is it? According to the National Geographic, the Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity, or earthquakes, around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. Roughly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and the ring is dotted with 75 percent of all active volcanoes on Earth. The National Geographic states the Ring of Fire isn't quite a circular ring. It is shaped more like a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) horseshoe. A string of 452 volcanoes stretches from the southern tip of South America, up along the coast of North America, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan, and into New Zealand. Several active and dormant volcanoes in Antarctica, however, 'close" the ring. Kamchatka Peninsula is part of Pacific Ring of Fire: Why is it dangerous? The Ring of Fire is the result of plate tectonics. Tectonic plates are huge slabs of Earth's crust, which fit together like pieces of a puzzle. The plates are not fixed but are constantly moving atop a layer of solid and molten rock called the mantle. Sometimes these plates collide, move apart, or slide next to each other. Most tectonic activity in the Ring of Fire occurs in these geologically active zones, according to the National Geographic. 'If you were to drain the water out of the Pacific Ocean, you would see a series of deep ocean trenches that run parallel to corresponding volcanic arcs along the Ring of Fire. These arcs create both islands and continental mountain ranges," it states. Volcanoes are formed along this ring when one plate crashes under another into the mantle – a process called subduction. 'What's special about the Ring of Fire is that multiple oceanic plates in the Pacific have subduction boundaries there," Loÿc Vanderkluysen, a volcanologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, told Live Science. The movement of tectonic plates also leads to earthquakes. When one plate is shoved beneath the other, 'there's lots of kicking and screaming as the plates grind against one another. And so that's where the biggest earthquakes on our planet take place," Jeffrey Karson, a professor emeritus of tectonics at Syracuse University in New York, was quoted as saying by Live Science. Massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake hits Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggering widespread tsunami warnings for Russia, Japan and US West coast. Residents evacuated from coastlines #Tsunamiwarning #tsunamialert #earthquake #earthquakerussia #KamchatkaPeninsula — News18 (@CNNnews18) July 30, 2025 How much damage did the earthquake cause? The quake at 8:25 am Japan time had a preliminary magnitude of 8.0, Japan and US seismologists said. The U.S. Geological Survey later updated its measurement to 8.8 magnitude and the USGS said the quake occurred at a depth of 20.7 kilometers. The quake was centered about 119 kilometers east-southeast from the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Multiple aftershocks as strong as 6.9 magnitude followed. The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia's Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone. top videos View all The quake caused damage to buildings and cars swayed in the streets in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which also had power outages and mobile phone service failures. Russian news agencies quoting the regional Health Ministry saying several people sought medical help in Kamchatka after the earthquake, but no serious injuries were reported. With inputs from AP, agencies About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ...Read More Get Latest Updates on Movies, Breaking News On India, World, Live Cricket Scores, And Stock Market Updates. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : Earthquake news18 specials Pacific Ocean view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 30, 2025, 11:58 IST News explainers Russia's Earthquake Epicentre Kamchatka Is In Pacific Ring Of Fire: Why That Makes It More Dangerous Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
