(Image source from: Twitter)

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit off the coast of Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula is one of the ten biggest earthquakes ever recorded. The strong shakes triggered a tsunami in the coastal regions of Russia’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Earlier in July, there were five strong earthquakes, with the biggest one measuring 7.4, occurring in the sea near Kamchatka. The most significant quake was located 20 kilometers deep and 144 kilometers east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city with 180,000 residents. On November 4, 1952, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Kamchatka caused damage but did not lead to any reported fatalities, even though it produced 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves in Hawaii. Today's earthquake was approximately 119 kilometers from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, located on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

According to Russia’s Tass news agency, people in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky rushed outside as soon as they felt the shaking. Furniture fell over in homes, mirrors shattered, cars moved in the streets, and building balconies noticeably trembled.

Tass also mentioned that there were power outages and issues with mobile phone services. At the same time, residents on Sakhalin Island were being evacuated, and emergency services were operating at full strength. The National Tsunami Warning Centre in Alaska issued a tsunami warning for parts of the Alaska Aleutian Islands and a watch for areas along the West Coast, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. The warning also covers a wide area of Alaska's coastline, including sections of the panhandle.

(Video Source: Republic World)