Tsunami warnings were lifted across the Pacific rim on Wednesday, allowing millions of temporary evacuees to return home after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Russia. The 8.8-magnitude quake hit the sparsely populated Kamchatka peninsula, prompting evacuations from Japan to the United States to Ecuador.
Storm surges of up to four metres were predicted, but fears of a catastrophe were not realised. In Japan, nearly two million people were ordered to higher ground before warnings were downgraded. The only reported fatality was a woman who drove her car off a cliff while trying to escape, according to local media. Chile conducted what the interior ministry called 'perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out' with 1.4 million people moved, but reported no damage or victims.
In the Galápagos Islands, where waves of up to three metres were expected, the Ecuadoran navy confirmed the danger had passed. Locals reported the sea level falling and then rising suddenly, but only a surge of just over a metre occurred, causing no damage. 'Everything is calm, I'm going back to work,' said 38-year-old Santa Cruz resident Isabel Grijalva.
The worst damage was in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk, submerging the local fishing plant. Russian state television showed buildings and debris swept into the sea. The surge reached a second world war monument about 400 metres from the shoreline, said mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov. The initial quake caused limited damage and only light injuries.
Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake, with red-hot lava flowing down its western slope. The US Geological Survey said the quake was one of the ten strongest since 1900, followed by dozens of aftershocks including one of 6.9 magnitude. There is a 59% chance of an aftershock exceeding 7.0 magnitude in the next week.
