Pacific Ocean
Tsunami alerts after a powerful earthquake near the Russian coast
A magnitude 8.7 shock hit the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. Japan, Hawaii and Alaska fear waves 3 m.
The Kamchatka peninsula is the meeting point between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.
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A powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday near the Russian coasts of the Kamthatka peninsula and caused alerts in tsunami in the west of the Pacific, notably in Hawaii, Alaska and Japan.
Japanese authorities warn that waves of up to 3 meters could strike the peaceful coasts of the archipelago between 01:00 and 02:30 GMT (03:00 and 04:30 in Switzerland).
The American Center for Tsunamis alerts on its side on a risk of waves more than 3 meters high on certain parts of the coasts of Russia and the Hawaii archipelago “in the next three hours”. Waves between 1 and 3 meters high could also touch the American island of Guam, specifies the center based in Honolulu.
All of the American coasts on the Pacific, from Alaska to California via Hawaii, are affected by various alert levels.
The earthquake, of a rare magnitude of 8.7, occurred according to the American Institute of Geophysics around 11:25 pm GMT Tuesday at 6.2 kilometers deep, about 126 kilometers from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamthatski, capital of the Kamthatka region. Two replicas of magnitudes 6.9 and 6.3 occurred soon after, adds the USGS.
“Do not approach the ribs”
“Tsunamis will occur repeatedly. Do not venture into the sea and do not approach the coast as long as the alert is not lifted, “warned the Japanese weather authority.
On July 20, an earthquake of magnitude 7.4, followed by many replicas, had also taken place off the coast of Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East, without doing major damage. Governor Kamthatka, Vladimir Solodov, then said that no “tsunami wave” had been observed in the Russian localities.
The Kamthatka peninsula is the meeting point between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, which makes the region one of the most active seismic areas on the planet. The Russian peninsula, which separates the sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, is “one of the regions most exposed to earthquakes in the world”, according to the American geophysical service. Since 1900, seven large -scale earthquakes – of a magnitude greater than or equal to 8.3 – have occurred along this peninsula.
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