Tsunami highlights: Evacuations ordered in Chile, Colombia; Japan, Hawaii lower alerts

General view of the Caleta Portales artisanal fishing pier during a tsunami warning in Valparaiso, Chile, on July 30.

Russia quake, tsunami highlights: While Hawaii and Japan have downgraded their tsunami warnings, Chile has upgraded it to the highest level across most of its Pacific Coast, ordering evacuations. Besides, the advisory along the coast in California has been cancelled. A warning for waves as high as 4 metres persists in French Polynesia, a country in the South Pacific, comprising of over a 100 islands.

The alerts were triggered by a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

In Hawaii, the areas where people were evacuated from has now been declared safe for return. One person died in Japan as tsunami waves measured 1.3 m hit the shore, reported Japan Times. However, the waves were weaker than feared, the publication said.

Tsunami waves measuring four feet (1.2 metres) were observed in Hawaii, as remote regions of California also prepared for potential impact following a major earthquake in Russia’s Far East that prompted tsunami warnings across the Pacific.

Near the earthquake’s epicentre in Russia, waves reportedly reached up to 4 meters, flooding a town of around 2,400 residents in the Northern Kuril Islands, according to media reports. However, no injuries or fatalities have been reported so far.

What is a Tsunami?

Tsunamis are massive ocean waves triggered by sudden vertical movements of the seafloor, typically caused by shallow faults slipping during powerful earthquakes or by the movement of large underwater landslides.

As these waves travel into shallower waters near coastlines, they increase in height, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Latest tsunami alert developments

• Kamchatka warning lifted: The tsunami warning issued in Russia's Kamchatka region, where the powerful 8.8-magnitude hit earlier today, has been lifted. "Dear residents and visitors to the Kamchatka region, our colleagues from the State Emergency Situations Ministry have lifted the tsunami alert," the region's emergencies minister Sergei Lebedev said on social media.
• Hawaii, Japan downgrade alerts: After having witnessed some tsunami waves, the US state of Hawaii and Japan downgraded the tsunami alerts to ‘advisories’. Areas in Hawaii that saw evacuations following a tsunami warning have also been declared safe for return. Meanwhile, one person lost their life in Japan as waves measuring 1.3 m hit the shore, reported Japan Times.
• Earthquake details: The tremor occurred at 8.25 am Japan time, with early readings placing the magnitude at 8.0. The US Geological Survey later revised the figure to 8.8, locating the epicentre about 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The depth was recorded at 20.7 km (13 miles). Multiple strong aftershocks followed, with magnitudes up to 6.9.
• Impact in Russia: The quake caused building damage, power outages, and mobile service disruptions in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (pop. 180,000). According to Russian news outlets citing the regional Health Ministry, some people sought medical help, though no major injuries were confirmed.
• Historic scale: This quake is believed to be the strongest globally since the March 2011 Japan earthquake (9.0 magnitude) that caused a devastating tsunami and nuclear disaster. Only a handful of recorded quakes worldwide have exceeded this one in strength.
• Philippines precautions: Philippine officials warned coastal provinces facing the Pacific about potential tsunami waves of under 1 meter (3 feet). People were told to avoid beaches and coastal waters. “It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger,” said Teresito Bacolcol from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
• Strongest in Kamchatka since 1952: This was the most powerful quake in the Kamchatka Peninsula since 1952, according to the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They added that “the situation was under control” but emphasised the likelihood of aftershocks for up to a month, advising people to stay away from vulnerable coastal areas.