A powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 has shaken on Wednesday the peninsula of, at the eastern end of Russia, around 11.25 (local time), and has generated a wide chain of Tsunami alerts throughout the, from Japan, Taiwan and New Zealand, to US territories such as Alaska and Hawaii, or South American countries such as Chile. The shaking has been the strongest in the region since 1952, according to the Academy of Sciences of Russia, which has established the epicenter about 126 kilometers southeast of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski and a depth of 19.3 kilometers under the marine bed.
The Pacific Tsunamis Alert Center warned of waves between one and three meters above the tide level in several coastal areas of Russia, Japan, Hawaii, Chile, Ecuador and the Solomon Islands. In Russia, the authorities have reported several injured and material damage, including a nursery. “Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades,” said Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov, in a video broadcast on Telegram.
The authorities of the Russian district of Severo-Kurilsk, at the southern end of the Kamchatka Peninsula, have declared the state of emergency after the earthquake and the arrival of several waves of Tsunami, which have reached three meters high, according to the Russian agency Ria Novosti. According to state media, the strong waves started vessels from their moorings and dragged storage containers, which forced to evacuate about 300 people from the port.
Alert in Asia
Despite its great magnitude, the earthquake barely felt in Japan, the nation closest to the epicenter. There he has only reached level two on the Japanese seismic scale, seven levels, which measures the intensity of the surface tremor and its destructive potential. However, the country of the rising sun has immediately activated its emergency system and sent evacuation orders for more than 1.9 million residents of 21 prefectures. In several locations in the Northeast Japanese, waves of more than half a subway have already been recorded, and the National Meteorological Agency has warned that they could reach three meters throughout the day.
The Japanese company TEPCO has ordered the evacuation of all workers of the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power plant, by caution, and although “no anomaly has been detected” in the facilities. The plant, located in the northeast of Japan, suffered a fusion of the nucleus in 2011 after being hired by a tsunami and is dismantled. The release of waters treated to the ocean has also been temporarily suspended.
China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan have also issued alerts by Tsunami and emergency services are monitoring the situation. The danger of a tsunami does not depend solely on the height of the waves, but on the energy with which they impact and the time during which they do. These types of phenomena can cause intense currents, abnormal or sudden withdrawal of the sea and repeated waves for several hours capable of dragging vessels or people, and especially dangerous in ports and rivers of rivers.
Emergency state in Hawaii
In the United States, the National Meteorological Service (NWS) maximized the alert for tsunami risk throughout the state of Hawaii, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Aleutian islands, belonging to Alaska, and inhabited by about 5,000 people. In addition, it issued a yellow warning for the entire west coast of the United States and Canada, which subsequently raised at the orange level, the second on the three -colored intensity scale.
Alaska, the state located further north of the United States, already begins to suffer the arrival of the tsunami. According to local media and others such as CNN, their effects are already beginning to feel with small waves. This region has already suffered in Lithuya Bay, which caused a mega -size megaola, 524 meters.
The Hawaii authorities have ordered the “immediate evacuation” of large parts of the island of Oahu, including the capital, Honolulu. The emergency department of that city is urging its citizens to go to volcanic areas inside the island or protect at the top of the high buildings.
The governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, decreed the state of emergency and called the population to evacuate coastal areas. “I have signed an emergency proclamation and the state emergency operations centers and the county are completely activated. Please take this situation seriously,” Green said in the social network X. “This is the most serious warning they can have. It is not a surveillance warning.”
“Stay at home watching television,” Green insisted later in a press conference. “Everything is fine, we have not seen any large wave, but when the water turns back, it means that the sea is having activity, so we cross the fingers so that it does not go to more,” he said. All commercial ports have been closed, and they have also evacuated. There are also no planes entering or leaving the islands.
The US president, also spoke in a message in his social social network: “Due to an earthquake of great magnitude that occurred in the Pacific Ocean, a Tsunami alert has been issued for Hawaii residents. A tsunami surveillance for Alaska and the US Pacific coast has been issued. Japan is also found in the area. Sure! ”He wrote.
The key time in Hawaii was 19.10 in the afternoon (7.10 in the morning on Wednesday in peninsular Spain), when the first blow of the tsunami was expected. Meteorologists and experts suggest that the state of the sea will not be critical, and that the water will reach approximately the meter high. However, they foresee that the phenomenon surrounds the islands, and that the water between with great force. The waves of that size have the capacity to move people or vehicles.
The expectation in the United States is total. All United States news connects live with the islands, some even directly hook with the programming of their local chains. The cameras point to the coasts of the islands smarter to the west, such as the Kauai northern, especially its Hanalei Bay, or in Oahu (where the capital is, Honolulu), where it has already been seen how the sea receded slightly through local television chains or web cameras.
Alerts in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Ecuador
In Mexico, the Tsunamis alerts center of the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) issued an alert for the Pacific coasts in which it warns of the arrival of heights less than 20 centimeters from 2.00 in the morning of Wednesday local time. In addition, he recommended “keeping the population away from the beaches” until the cancellation of the alert and warned that “strong currents are expected at the entrance of the ports.”
The president of Chile, announced in his account of the social network X that the Tsunami alert would be maintained throughout the Chilean coast on Wednesday. “The protocol is to evacuate 3 hours before the estimation of arrival of the wave. We will be informing in detail steps to follow. Keep calm and only follow instructions from authorities,” he said through a message in networks.
For the earthquake in Russia at this time, national cogrid is performed. For now we have Tsunami alert for the entire coast of Chile for tomorrow. The protocol is to evacuate 3 hours before the estimation of arrival of the wave. We will be informing in detail steps to follow. Keep …
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric)
In Ecuador, the Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute of the Navy has also warned of the possibilities of Tsunami, and has recommended the suspension of coastal maritime activities. In his communiqués he has stated that the effects of the earthquake that occurred in Russia would result in the possibility of the arrival of 1.4 meters waves during this Wednesday. “As for the continental coastal zone, the state of observation is maintained, since the risk of affectation is considered less so far,” he added.
The Directorate of Hydrography and Navigation of the Navy of Peru has also set the Tsunami alert, although it has not given more information so far.
