The massive 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s coast, which prompted tsunami warnings that sent coastal dwellers as far away as Southern California inland late Tuesday night, is one of the largest ever recorded.
The quake hit an area about 85 miles east of Kamchatsky, on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula. So far, there have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries, according to news outlets.
It is the largest seismic event to occur globally since the 9.0 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake in 2011, and among the top ten largest earthquakes to occur globally since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
It struck Wednesday morning local Russian time, which was still Tuesday in the United States.
The warning sent sirens blaring in Hawaii with thousands of people evacuating inland, Fox Weather reported.
“According to a live update from CNN World, so far the highest reported tsunami waves on the West Coast as of 5:30 a.m. PT have been 5.7 feet in Kahului, Hawaii, 4 feet in Crescent City, California, and 3 feet in Arena Cove, California, the New York Post said.
While the tsunami advisory for the lower part of California was no longer in effect, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles was advising people to stay out of the ocean because of strong currents.
The Russian temblor was the sixth-biggest quake ever recorded, Simon Boxall, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Southampton’s Physical Oceanography Research Center, told the New York Post.
The largest earthquake ever recorded was a 9.5 magnitude quake in the central region of Chile in 1960. It resulted in more than 1,600 deaths in the country and elsewhere.
The second largest was in the United States. In 1964 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the Prince William Sound in Alaska and lasted for almost 5 minutes, resulting in 130 deaths.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles based crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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