Latest: Klyuchevskoy Volcano in Russia Starts Erupting

The Klyuchevskoy volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east has started erupting after Wednesday’s powerful earthquake in the Pacific, Russian state news agency RIA reported, according to Reuters.

The volcano is known to be the tallest active volcano in Eurasia.

The massive quake struck on Wednesday morning in Russia, generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13ft) on the country’s east coast, damaging buildings and prompting evacuation warnings in the region and across most of Japan’s east coast, officials said.

First the 8.8 Earthquake

A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami waves of up to 5 metres (16 feet) nearby and sparked evacuation orders as far away as Hawaii and across the Pacific on Wednesday.

The tsunami wave swept away buildings on the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific. The regional authorities declared a state of emergency but mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov said all residents were safe and had been evacuated. The country’s emergency ministry said parts of the town had been flooded. The tsunami alert was later cancelled in Russia’s Severo-Kurilsk, state-owned Tass news agency reports.

More than two million people were evacuated in Japan, including workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, who were evacuated, with plant operator Tepco saying that “no abnormality” had been observed at the site.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said initial reports indicate no safety impact for nuclear power plants along the Pacific Coast, Reuters reports

Japan later lifted all tsunami warnings, downgrading them to a tsunami advisory, Reuters reports, citing the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Broadcaster Asahi TV reported a 58-year-old woman died when her car fell off a cliff while she was evacuating in central Japan’s Mie prefecture, Reuters reports.

Hawaii downgraded its tsunami warning to advisory and lifted its evacuation order with people able to return to their homes.

The Klyuchevskoy volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east has started erupting after Wednesday’s powerful earthquake in the Pacific, Russian state news agency RIA reported, according to Reuters.

Authorities in Central and South America have ordered evacuations and issued tsunami warnings.

Tsunami waves began hitting the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia early on Wednesday, but the waves were forecast to be smaller than initially feared, local authorities said.

The National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) said a tsunami advisory has been cancelled for coastal areas of south Alaska, the Alaska peninsula and the Aleutian Islands from Chignik Bay, Alaska to the Samalga Pass.

The NTWC said a tsunami advisory has been cancelled for the coastal areas of British Columbia from the Washington/British Columbia border to the British Columbia/Alaska border. A tsunami advisory is now cancelled for American Samoa, Reuters reports.