Latest news with #MeteorologicalAgency
The Independent
13 hours ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Japanese woman evacuating amid tsunami warning dies after car falls off road
A woman in Japan died while evacuating during a tsunami warning after a massive 8.8 earthquake struck Russia 's far east Kamchatka peninsula on Wednesday. The 58-year-old was driving when her small car veered and fell about 20m from a national highway in Kumano, Mie Prefecture. The police believe she was trying to move to higher ground when she steered the car in the wrong direction, Yomiuri Shimbun reported. After the tsunami warning on Wednesday, she reportedly told her family over a text message that she would move her car to higher ground. Authorities in Japan issued evacuation advisories to over two million residents along the eastern seaboard as the powerful earthquake brought back memories of the disastrous 2011 tsunami that hit Japan. The Russian earthquake triggered a tsunami, with high waves reaching parts of Russia, Japan, Hawaii and the US West Coast. About a dozen nations across the Pacific – from China to Chile – issued tsunami warnings and evacuation orders in the aftermath of one of the most powerful recorded earthquakes. Russia's Oceanology Institute said tsunami waves of less than 6m were recorded near populated areas of the peninsula. About 10 others suffered injuries, mostly in Hokkaido, while heading to shelter following the tsunami alert, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Thursday. Japan's Meteorological Agency on Thursday lifted the tsunami advisory for coastal areas between Tokyo Bay and Okinawa, but announced that the measures would remain in place for areas between Hokkaido and Chiba. The highest tsunami wave observed in Japan was a 1.3m at a port in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, according to reports. Millions of people, who were asked to evacuate to higher grounds in Japan, Hawaii, Russia and the western coast of US, began returning to their homes late on Wednesday after tsunami warnings were dropped for most regions. Cars jammed streets and highways in Honolulu, with traffic at a standstill even far from the sea.'We've got water, we got some snacks ... we're going to stay elevated,' said Jimmy Markowski, whose family from Hot Springs, Arkansas, fled their Waikiki beach resort before evacuation orders were lifted. 'This is our first tsunami warning ever. So this is all new to us.' US secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the worst had passed. Later Wednesday, tsunami advisories for Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and Washington state were canceled, but remained for parts of northern California, where authorities warned to stay away from beaches and advised that dangerous currents should be expected through Thursday morning. While most of South American countries on the eastern coast dropped the warnings, Chile kept alerts at the highest level for most of its lengthy Pacific coast. Alvaro Elizalde, the interior minister of Chile, said late Wednesday that evacuation orders remain in place in areas with remaining alerts and classes will continue cancelled on Thursday. He said that waves reached a height of 1.1m in some places, and in one location reached 2.5m. In Colombia, officials have ordered the complete closure and evacuation of beaches and low-tide areas along the country's Pacific coast. Emergency management officials in New Zealand said the country was hit by strong currents and wave surges as tsunami activity reached the shores. An alert broadcast to every cell phone said the threat was likely to remain in place until Thursday afternoon. Evacuations haven't been ordered but people throughout the South Pacific island nation are warned to stay out of the water and away from beaches, shorelines, harbors, rivers and estuaries. New Zealand is about 9,600km from the quake's epicentre and officials have warned that the first tsunami waves might not be the largest to arrive and people should treat the threat as real until the alert is canceled. Wednesday's earthquake, which was followed by multiple aftershocks as strong as of 6.9 magnitude, occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where more than 80 per cent of the world's largest quakes occur. While not all earthquakes lead to tsunamis, this one generated a series of them spreading outward from the epicentre off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Following the quake, Russia 's Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted, with 'descent of burning hot lava' flowing down the slopes of one of the world's highest active volcanoes. Klyuchevskoy, which has erupted several times over recent years, is located approximately 450km north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the regional capital.
The Herald Scotland
18 hours ago
- Climate
- The Herald Scotland
130 foot waves. Nuclear disaster. How 2011 tsunami compares to today's
On July 30, Japan appears to have mercifully avoided the fate it suffered on March 11, 2011, in what is often referred as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Tsunami evacuation orders lifted: threat to Hawaii, U.S. West Coast, Japan eases Modest tsunami waves did reach the West Coast of the United States after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's eastern coast. The earthquake was powerful. One of the strongest ever recorded. The Klyuchevskoy volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's far east erupted, Russian state news agency RIA reported. Almost two million people had been told to evacuate in Japan. But within hours tsunami warnings in Japan - as well as in Russia and Hawaii - were downgraded, though warnings and advisories were still in place for much of the Pacific Ocean. Alerts were issued in China, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Sirens blare, traffic gridlocks: Hawaii braces for tsunami threat Still, earlier, as Japan waited to see what the impact of this latest tsnumani was going to be, media reports in the country said the nations was on edge but prepared. The Japan Times reported that towns, villages and nuclear reactors, including the Fukushima Daiichi plant, site of 2011's nuclear disaster, were evacuated. Airports shut while office workers rushed to higher floors in coastal cities. Residents inland, the media outlet said, largey went about their business, while the more vulnerable coastal areas quickly implemented long-planned measures. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake itself was relatively shallow. It struck at a depth of about 12 miles southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in eastern Russia. And, in the end, the biggest waves to hit Japan measured about 4 feet, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency. That's six feet less than was forecast. One person died. A 58-year-old woman was killed when her car went off a cliff while she was trying to leave a coastal area. She was on her way, local media reported, to an evacuation site when her car fell from a height of about 100 feet on a national highway in Homo Town, Kumano City, about 60 miles south of Osako and Kyoto.
NHK
a day ago
- Climate
- NHK
After Kamchatka quake, Japan warns reflected tsunami could pack extra punch
Following the massive earthquake that struck near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday morning, Japan's Meteorological Agency says tsunami waves arriving after the first one could be more powerful -- partly due to the region's unique undersea topography. The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 8.8, hit near the peninsula at around 11:25 a.m., local time. Tsunami waves have been observed across a broad area of Japan's Pacific coast. The agency says an undersea mountain range known as the Emperor Seamount Chain lies to the east of the peninsula, stretching about 2,000 kilometers from south to north. The seamounts are located at a depth of around 6,000 meters, with some rising more than 4,000 or 5,000 meters above the seafloor. The agency suggests that this topography could cause tsunami waves to be reflected, making them higher as they head toward the Japanese archipelago. In the 2006 earthquake that occurred off the eastern part of the Kuril Islands -- south of Wednesday's quake epicenter -- the agency found that reflected tsunami waves caused by local topography were higher than the initial tsunami. Those higher waves reached the coast of western Japan.
CBS News
a day ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Tsunami risk appears to pass for U.S. after massive Russian earthquake; South American countries issue new warnings
One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia's Far East early Wednesday, sending tsunami waves into Hawaii, the U.S. West Coast and Japan. Several people were injured, none gravely, and no major damage has been reported so far. The 8.8 magnitude temblor struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, an isolated strip along the Pacific Ocean, overnight. Residents of the peninsula fled inland as 16-foot waves caused flooding. Immediately after the earthquake, Hawaii issued a tsunami warning and evacuation orders, but by Wednesday morning, the warning was downgraded to an advisory and evacuation orders were lifted on the Big Island and Oahu. Japan's Meteorological Agency also lowered its alerts to advisories. States on the U.S. West Coast were placed under a tsunami advisory that remained in effect Wednesday morning. But U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the worst was over. "We were fully deployed and ready to respond if necessary but grateful that we didn't have to deal with the situation that this could have been," she told reporters in Chile, where she is meeting officials. Experts had warned earlier that the effects of the earthquake may continue through Wednesday. "A tsunami is not just one wave," said Dan Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. "It's a series of powerful waves over a long period of time. Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour — as fast as a jet airplane — in deep water. But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up. And that's where that inundation problem becomes a little bit more possible there." "In this case, because of the Earth basically sending out these huge ripples of water across the ocean, they're going to be moving back and forth for quite a while," which is why some communities may feel effects longer, he said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which lifted the Hawaii warning, had forecast that the estimated arrival time of the first tsunami waves there would be 7:17 p.m. Tuesday local time (1:17 a.m. Wednesday ET). Officials urged people to move inland and shelters were opened in many parts of Hawaii. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said that Black Hawk helicopters had been activated and high-water vehicles were on standby in case authorities needed to conduct rescue operations. So far no damage has been recorded, but it will take two to three hours of observation before authorities will be able to determine whether the event has passed, Green said. Green said data from Midway Atoll, a small island between Japan and Hawaii, measured waves that were about 6 feet from peak to trough. He warned that waves hitting Hawaii could be bigger or smaller. Cars jammed streets and highways in Honolulu, even in areas away from the shore, as people tried to evacuate. Jimmy Markowski, who was visiting Honolulu's Waikiki Beach, said that the roads on the island were packed. "We decided to go to elevated ground," Markowski told "CBS Mornings." "We passed a few other gas stations, you couldn't even get in 'em." CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV reported that the first waves coming ashore were relatively small, though they came at high tide. Flooding was reported in numerous shoreline areas, including parking lots and boat harbors. The PTSC said the Hilo, Hawaii, gauge recorded a tsunami height of 4.9 feet relative to normal sea levels and the Kahului, Maui, gauge recorded a tsunami height of 4 feet. At around 10 p.m. local time, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center director Chip McCreery said wave heights appeared to have peaked. The Oregon Department of Emergency Management said on Facebook at around 3 a.m. local time that small tsunami waves were expected along the coast and urged people to stay away from beaches, harbors and marinas and to remain in a safe location away from the coast until the advisory is lifted. "This is not a major tsunami, but dangerous currents and strong waves may pose a risk to those near the water," the department said. A tsunami warning was posted for a portion of the California coast near the border with Oregon, but was later lowered to an advisory. California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a statement on X saying the state's Office of Emergency Services was coordinating with local officials in Northern California, from Cape Mendocino to the Oregon border. The advisory extended along the whole California coast. Dr. Lucy Jones told CBS News Los Angeles that experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were predicting waves of about a foot for most of Southern California. The National Weather Service said on X that tsunami waves arrived in Monterey around 12:48 a.m. PT. Other cities along the California coast reported small to moderate-sized tsunami waves. A video shared by the National Weather Service Bay Area showed boats bobbing up and down in a harbor as they were rocked by small tsunami waves. The National Weather Service in Eureka, California, said around 4 a.m. local time that Crescent City had seen tsunami waves of about 3.5 feet, with activity building as the region approached a minor high tide. High tide could lead to more flooding. Crescent City has seen dozens of tsunamis since the 1930s, including a 1964 event that killed 11 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings. The National Weather Service Bay Area warned that even if the waves are small, they can cause "seriously dangerous" currents. The first waves also may not be the highest, the agency said, warning people to avoid coastal areas until told it's safe. On Alaska's Aleutian Islands, officials recorded waves up to 1.4 feet above tide levels. The quake was centered about 74 miles east-southeast of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000. Multiple aftershocks as strong as 6.9 magnitude followed and experts predict aftershocks of up to 7.5 for at least a month, according to the Russian News agency TASS. The temblor appeared to be the strongest anywhere in the world since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake off northeastern Japan in March 2011 that caused a massive tsunami that set off meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured around the world. Earlier this month, five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — struck in the sea near Kamchatka. The largest was at a depth of 12.4 miles and was 89 miles east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The Kremlin said regional authorities on Kamchatka were well prepared for the quake. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the warnings were issued timely and people were quickly evacuated from dangerous areas. He added that the buildings proved resilient to shocks. A video released by a Russian media outlet showed a team of doctors at a cancer clinic on Kamchatka holding a patient and clutching medical equipment as the quake rocked an operating room, before continuing with surgery after the shaking stopped. Officials said the doctors will receive decorations. Tsunami heights of about 9 to 13 feet were recorded in Kamchatka. Severokurilsk Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov said the port in the city was flooded by tsunami waves, washing fishing boats into the sea. He said no major damage was recorded. Authorities on the Kamchatka peninsula lifted the tsunami warning for the area, some 11 hours after the quake hit. Russian authorities said several people were injured, without giving a figure. The risk of aftershocks and waves remains, officials said. On Wednesday, lava began to flow from Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest active volcano in the northern hemisphere. The 15,584-foot volcano, located in the east of Kamchatka, last erupted in 2023. Observers heard explosions and saw streams of lava on the volcano's western slopes, the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' geophysical service said. Scientists have anticipated an eruption, with the volcano's crater filling with lava for several weeks and the mountain spitting out plumes of ash. "The Klyuchevskoy is erupting right now," the Russian Geophysical Survey said on Telegram, posting photos of an orange blaze on top of the volcano and adding that "red-hot lava is observed flowing down the western slope. There is a powerful glow above the volcano and explosions." Sometimes described as the "land of fire and ice," Kamchatka is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. It has about 300 volcanoes, of which 29 are active, according to NASA Earth Observatory. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 8.0, Japanese and U.S. seismologists said. The U.S. Geological Survey later updated its strength to 8.8 magnitude and a depth of 13 miles. People went to evacuation centers in affected areas of Japan, with memories fresh of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused reactor meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. The tsunami alert disrupted transportation, with ferries, trains and airports in the affected area suspending or delaying some operations. Waves of about 2 feet were recorded on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, and at least one person was injured. Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said nearly 2 million residents are now under evacuation advisories in more than 220 municipalities along the Pacific coast as of midday Wednesday. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said waves could remain high for at least one day, and he urged evacuees to take precautions and stay well hydrated in the summer heat. He told evacuees they might not be able to return home by the end of the day on Wednesday. No abnormalities in operations at Japan's nuclear plants were reported on Wednesday. The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, heavily damaged by the 2011 tsunami, said about 4,000 workers are taking shelter on higher ground at the plant complex while monitoring remotely to ensure safety. China's Ministry of Natural Resources' Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for parts of the country's east coast along Shanghai and Zhejiang provinces. The warning forecasted that waves could reach between one to three feet. The provinces are already under an alert as Typhoon CoMay is expected to land in the Zhejiang province on Wednesday. Some tiny and low-lying Pacific island chains are among the world's most imperiled by tsunamis and rising seas due to climate change. People were urged to stay away from coastlines until any wave surges passed late Wednesday in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands. Philippine authorities advised people to stay away from the beach and coastal areas. "It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger," Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told The Associated Press. Elsewhere, a tsunami of under a foot was forecast to hit parts of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Mexico's navy warned that tsunami waves will start reaching the northern coast in Ensenada, near California, at around 02:22 a.m. Wednesday local time, and waves could progress along the Pacific coast to Chiapas state, around 07:15 a.m. local time. In Chile, tsunami warnings were upgraded to their highest level on Wednesday morning. The alert covers most of the nation's 4,000-mile Pacific coastline. The country's Education Ministry also canceled classes along much of the coast. New Zealand authorities warned of "strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges" along all coastlines of the South Pacific island nation. The emergency management agency said people should move out of the water, off beaches and away from harbors, marinas, rivers and estuaries. There are four levels of tsunami alerts: warning, advisory, watch and information statement, according to the National Weather Service. A tsunami warning is the most severe. It means residents should take action due to a coming tsunami that may cause widespread flooding. A tsunami advisory means there's the potential for "strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or very near the water," according to the NWS. A tsunami watch advises those to be prepared because a distant earthquake has occurred and a tsunami is possible. The lowest level of alert is a tsunami information statement from the NWS, which advises people to "relax" since an earthquake has occurred, but there is no threat or it was very far away.
USA Today
a day ago
- Climate
- USA Today
130 foot waves. A nuclear disaster. Comparing Japan's 2011 tsunami to today's
A massive tsunami generated by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake struck Japan's coast within 30 minutes. Waves as high as 130 feet spilled over seawalls. Within days, three nuclear reactors were disabled. More than 20,000 people died, including several thousand victims whose remains were never recovered. A further 400,000 people were impacted, their homes and livelihoods and memories washed away. The resulting damage cost an estimated $220 billion − one of the most expensive natural disasters in human history. On July 30, Japan appears to have mercifully avoided the fate it suffered on March 11, 2011, in what is often referred as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Tsunami evacuation orders lifted: threat to Hawaii, U.S. West Coast, Japan eases Modest tsunami waves did reach the West Coast of the United States after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's eastern coast. The earthquake was powerful. One of the strongest ever recorded. The Klyuchevskoy volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's far east erupted, Russian state news agency RIA reported. Almost two million people had been told to evacuate in Japan. But within hours tsunami warnings in Japan − as well as in Russia and Hawaii − were downgraded, though warnings and advisories were still in place for much of the Pacific Ocean. Alerts were issued in China, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Sirens blare, traffic gridlocks: Hawaii braces for tsunami threat Still, earlier, as Japan waited to see what the impact of this latest tsnumani was going to be, media reports in the country said the nations was on edge but prepared. The Japan Times reported that towns, villages and nuclear reactors, including the Fukushima Daiichi plant, site of 2011's nuclear disaster, were evacuated. Airports shut while office workers rushed to higher floors in coastal cities. Residents inland, the media outlet said, largey went about their business, while the more vulnerable coastal areas quickly implemented long-planned measures. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake itself was relatively shallow. It struck at a depth of about 12 miles southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in eastern Russia. And, in the end, the biggest waves to hit Japan measured about 4 feet, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency. That's six feet less than was forecast. One person died. A 58-year-old woman was killed when her car went off a cliff while she was trying to leave a coastal area. She was on her way, local media reported, to an evacuation site when her car fell from a height of about 100 feet on a national highway in Homo Town, Kumano City, about 60 miles south of Osako and Kyoto.
