Tsunami waves have begun to hit the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, authorities said, around 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away from the epicenter of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s far east.
The highest waves are expected in the next few hours, but they are now expected to be between 1.1 and 2.5 meters (3 and 8 feet), down from previous forecasts of up to 4 meters (13 feet), the High Commission of the Republic of French Polynesia said on Facebook.
Water withdrawals – the first sign of an incoming tsunami – were seen in the islands of Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa and Ua Huka, the commission said.
Early tsunami warnings have allowed for timely evacuations and “appear to have been effective,” Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, told the Science Media Centre.
She cautioned, though, “unusual waves and potentially dangerous coastal activity is expected to continue for many hours even once the main tsunami waves pass. People are urged to take the risk to life seriously, remain vigilant, follow all evacuation orders and stay away from coastal areas.”
Tsunami waves are “are not like normal surface waves, they are movements through the whole water column that travel over long distances. Even seemingly small waves carry tremendous force and can cause substantial damage and destruction,” Neumann added.
Eurasia’s highest volcano has erupted after the earthquake in the Kamchatka region of Russia’s far east, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
At 4,750 meters (15,580 feet), Klyuchevskaya Sopka is one of the world’s highest active volcanos.
Tourists who had traveled to the area of the volcano have not canceled their tours and instead want to stay to watch the eruption, RIA reported, citing the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI).
“A volcanic eruption, hot lava flowing down the western slope, a powerful glow over the crater and explosions are observed at night. Despite this, no cancellations of tours or complaints have been recorded among tourists visiting the foothills of volcanoes. On the contrary, many travelers are expressing a desire to personally observe this natural phenomenon,” RUTI said, according to RIA.
In September 2022, eight people died on a climbing expedition on the volcano, according to local authorities.
Conditions on the volcano are often treacherous and unpredictable, with strong winds, bitterly cold temperatures and snow at high altitudes.
This post has been updated with additional information.
The Tantalus Lookout — a remnant of a long dormant volcano that now provides scenic views of Honolulu — became a gathering place for many people Tuesday looking for a quick getaway from the beach as the area was under a tsunami warning.
A tourist couple who had been swimming with their kids at Waimanalo Beach rushed out when the tsunami warning reached their phones and made their way up to Tantalus.
“This was the highest point we knew,” a woman told CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now. “We came in here (Monday), and we were like, instead of going to the hotel, let’s go here.”
Some local residents had the same idea.
“I got on the road, and I noticed traffic was getting crazy,” said a man who lives in the suburb of Makakilo and said the traffic was too bad to return home. “I was thinking, no way, that (Interstate) H1 is crazy congested right now.”
The tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory hours after the 8.8-magnitude earth struck near Russia.
Video captured boats at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, California, moving with the waves from the tsunami.
Boats can be seen floating up and down with the water during the overnight hours.
“A tsunami is not just one wave,” the National Weather Service in the Bay Area said in a post on X. “It’s a packet of waves that can last for several hours. This rapid surging of water can create dangerous currents.”
Watch the time-lapse here:
Chilean authorities have issued a tsunami warning for Easter Island and asked residents to evacuate to safe zones, following the 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s far east.
Easter Island sits more than 2,000 miles (around 3,200 kilometers) off the coast of Chile in the Pacific, and is home to around 8,000 people.
Senapred, Chile’s disaster prevention agency, urged residents to act calmly and follow the instructions of the authorities.
These are the highest tsunami waves reported on United States shores as of 5:30 a.m. PT:
- Kahului, Hawaii: 5.7 feet
- Hilo, Hawaii: 4.9 feet
- Crescent City, California: 4.0 feet
- Haleiwa, Hawaii: 4.0 feet
- Hanalei, Hawaii: 3.9 feet
- Arena Cove, California: 3.0 feet
- Adak, Alaska: 2.7 feet
A tsunami warning — the highest level of alert — is in effect for a small portion of the Northern California coast while tsunami advisories remain in place for the rest of the US West Coast, Hawaii and long stretches of Alaska coastline.
A tsunami warning means dangerous, widespread coastal flooding with strong currents is possible or already occurring, and evacuation is recommended, according to the National Weather Service.
A tsunami advisory means “strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or very near the water” are possible in the region, and beach and harbor areas could flood. People under advisories should “stay out of the water and away from beaches and waterways,” the weather service says.
There have been “no casualties” in Russia after a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunamis struck off the country’s far eastern coast, according to the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
The number of people who may have been injured was not mentioned.
Tsunami warning systems worked in a “timely manner” so people were evacuated when they needed to be, Peskov said.
“In general, the seismic resistance of the buildings proved itself, so thank God there were no casualties,” he continued.
Tsunami warnings lifted: The Russian government has canceled its tsunami threat alert in Kamchatka Peninsula where the earthquake took place, according to state media TASS.
The district of Severo-Kurilsky, which is located on the southern tip of the peninsula, also lifted its tsunami alert, its administration said in a post on Telegram.
Earlier in the district, tsunami waves lashed the coastline, tearing boats from their moorings and carrying away storage containers, according to TASS.
Meanwhile, Valery Limarenko, governor of Russia’s Sakhalin region, announced that there is also no longer a tsunami threat on the Northern Kuril Islands, a volcanic archipelago south of the peninsula in Russia’s far east. “The situation is stabilizing” and “all emergency services remain on standby,” he said.
Japan has lifted all tsunami warnings, according to the country’s Meterological Agency.
However, a tsunami advisory remains in effect from Hokkaido to Okinawa, it said.
Waves up to 7.58 foot high are expected to reach the Peruvian coast on Wednesday, the country’s national emergency center warned in a post on X.
The waves are expected to range between 1 meter (3.28ft) and 2.31 meters (7.58ft), it said.
Peru has an extensive coastline exposed to the Pacific ocean, with many major cities located directly along the shore.
The first waves are due to reach the port of La Cruz around 10:09 a.m. local time (9:09 a.m. ET), the post warned.
Wednesday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia’s east coast is tied for the sixth-strongest recorded, as we reported earlier.
It ranks alongside the devastating 2010 Chile earthquake, which killed more than 500 people and caused major destruction, and a 1906 earthquake in Ecuador and Colombia, which triggered a tsunami that claimed up to 1,500 lives.
“This is the largest earthquake we’ve had in over a decade worldwide,” Jeffrey Park, Seismologist and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University, told CNN News Central on Wednesday.
“It’s among the top 10 earthquakes that have been measured by humans in the last century and a half.”
Lisa McNeill, Professor of Tectonics at the University of Southampton in England, said the quake “ruptured past of the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone,” which was the same tectonic setting as the 2011 Japan and 2004 Indian Ocean earthquakes.
It is “a very large earthquake,” she said. “A subduction zone is where one tectonic plate collides with and slides under another and this generates the largest earthquakes on Earth.
“Some fault movements don’t move the seafloor much and so there is no tsunami,” she added. “In the case of this earthquake, it had a very large rupture and slip (which make the earthquake large) and so a tsunami has been generated.”
Joanna Faure Walker, Professor Earthquake Geology and Disaster Risk Reduction at UCL, also touched on the role of seafloor displacement in driving tsunami formation.
“Tsunami travel across the ocean at speeds comparable to jumbo jets,” she said, adding that as the wave reaches shallower coastal waters, it slows down and builds in height – “in the worst cases, this can be many meters high.”
The only portion of US coastline still under a tsunami warning — the highest level alert — Wednesday morning is in Northern California. The warning covers about 40 miles of coastline from just south of Klamath, California, to the Oregon border, including Crescent City.
This section of the coast has a bathymetry or underwater geography that makes it prone to worse tsunami waves than surrounding areas. The terrain of the ocean’s floor is as important as the terrain on land when it comes to flooding: A narrow valley underwater can funnel a more powerful wave of water, similar to how canyons can flash flood dramatically in the desert Southwest.
Crescent City already experienced a tsunami wave of 3.6 feet early Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
“Continue to avoid beaches and harbors as tsunami activity will persist,” the NWS warned.
Maui tourists and locals slept in their vehicles Tuesday night after evacuating parts of Hawaii to get to higher ground amid tsunami alerts.
Debra Daniels, a Maui resident, was staying at a resort on Napili Bay Beach when she received word of the tsunami.
Daniels and her boyfriend planned to drive 45 minutes back to her home in Kula but roads became gridlocked and travel time more than doubled.
“At the time there was a lot of borderline ‘evacuation panic’ from both tourists and locals, everyone was trying to evacuate and there is only one road to get to the other side of the island,” Daniels told CNN.
She eventually decided to seek higher ground in West Maui instead of waiting in the traffic.
The pair turned up a random road in a mountain neighborhood and were met by lots of other people with the same idea as cars lined the streets.
“It almost felt like waiting for fireworks on the Fourth of July, people were anxious but in good spirits,” Daniels said. Videos captured the scene at sunset as those in the area looked out at the water to keep an eye out for waves from the tsunami.
Daniels said when she was leaving the area many people were still in their cars waiting or sleeping.
While some impacts in Southern California have been “on the weaker side,” parts of coastal California are feeling the effects of the tsunami, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service said.
“We are seeing a lot of surging of the waters, especially along west- and northwest-facing beaches,” said Dr. Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the service’s Los Angeles/Oxnard office.
“And these areas, such as the port San Luis area, Ventura Harbour area, and even near Santa Monica, are where we’re getting a lighter version in terms of impacts of the water surging potential for some very minor inundation near the beaches and very significant and powerful rip currents.”
Cohen warned residents not to let their guard down.
“It’s still a situation where everybody needs to be very vigilant, remain at a high state of readiness, as we head through the daytime hours,” he said. “While the situation may be improving to some extent, we’re not out of the woods just yet.”
Tsunami warnings were issued from Japan to Chile, with huge waves predicted to hit parts of French Polynesia. If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest:
In Russia’s district of Severo-Kurilsk, near the epicenter of the earthquake, a state of emergency was issued after tsunami waves lashed the coast, tearing boats from their moorings and carrying away storage containers, according to state media TASS and videos from the scene.
In Japan, more than 2 million people were told to evacuate as waves hit much of the northern and eastern coasts. By Wednesday afternoon, Tsunami warnings in parts of Japan had been switched to advisories, but still remained in Hokkaido and Tohoku regions.
The Philippines and Indonesia both issued tsunami warnings, with the Philippines later Wednesday cancelling their advisory.
Authorities in French Polynesia have placed the Marquesas Islands archipelago under a tsunami alert, saying that waves of up to 4 meters (13 feet) could reach the islands of Ua Huka, Nuku Hiva, and Hiva Oa overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
A tsunami advisory that was in place for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands was canceled Wednesday, according to the US National Weather Service Guam, who also said locations across Micronesia are also in the clear.
In Chile, the National Tsunami Alarm System said there’s a tsunami threat for all the country’s coastline. Peru’s navy has said it is monitoring the situation closely.
Ecuador’s Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute said the Galapagos Islands – a major center of biodiversity and wildlife found nowhere else – could see a wave measuring 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) by 9 a.m. local time.
The Integrated Tsunami Alert System of Mexico and Central America also issued a tsunami stretching from from Ensenada, on the northwest coast of Mexico, to the Central American country of Panama.
More than 2 million people across Japan were issued with localized evacuation orders, the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Wednesday, as waves measuring up to 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) hit the east coast of Hokkaido.
It comes as tsuanmi warnings in some parts of the country were downgraded to advisories. The warnings still remain in the Hokkaido and Tohuku regions, however.
In a previous advisory Wednesday, the agency also warned that tsunami waves can strike repeatedly, and that residents in affected areas shouldn’t leave their shelters until tsunami warnings or advisories are lifted.
A tsunami advisory that was in place for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands has been canceled, according to the US National Weather Service Guam on Wednesday evening.
Locations across Micronesia are declaring all-clear, the weather service also said.
The National Weather Service Guam advised residents that “strong currents may still occur.”
One of the two major airports on Hawaii’s Big Island was temporarily closed Tuesday evening to allow people to evacuate from an adjoining beach community.
“Hilo International Airport was closed to facilitate evacuation of Keaukaha across the runway,” the state government said in a news release.
Keaukaha is directly north of the airport with multiple beach parks and has only one major street leaving the neighborhood.
Flights to and from Maui were also canceled, and baggage operations at Honolulu’s main airport were temporarily suspended, the state said.
The Philippines has canceled a tsunami advisory that was issued for several coastal communities across the country.
“No significant sea level disturbances nor destructive tsunami waves have been recorded since the 7:25 a.m. (7:25 p.m. Tuesday ET) earthquake,” the Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in its latest update.
The institute had previously warned the public to stay away from the coast and to move inland because tsunami waves were expected to hit coastal areas of the country.
“Any effects due to minor sea level disturbances have largely passed,” it said when canceling the advisory.
