Tokyo: A massive earthquake struck Russia’s eastern coast on Wednesday morning. Due to this powerful earthquake, a tsunami warning was triggered in the coastal areas of the Kuril Islands and Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido. A 50-centimetre-high tsunami struck Japan’s Ishinomaki port, as reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Notably, Ishinomaki is a major port city in Miyagi Prefecture on the east coast of the country. Amid the tsunami warning, four whales were reportedly washed up on the shore in Eastern Japan. These whales were spotted at Tateyama in the Chiba Prefecture. BNO News shared the video of whales on the shore. Notably, five Beluga whales were also washed up to the shore in Kamchatka, the place which is the epicentre of the massive earthquake.
Video Of The Incident:
The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami as high as 40 centimetres (1.3 feet) had been detected in 16 locations as the waves moved south along the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to just northeast of Tokyo, reported The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake's epicentre on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Russian news agencies quoting the regional Health Ministry said several people sought medical help in Kamchatka after the earthquake, but no serious injuries were reported. No injuries have been reported in Japan.
A tsunami warning has also sounded in California, Alaska, and Hawaii in the US. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the quake occurred as a result of shallow reverse faulting, as the Pacific plate moves west-northwest with respect to the North American plate at about 77 mm per year, while the North American plate extends westward beyond the North American continent, reported AP.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake was the strongest to strike Kamchatka since 1952, as per the local branch of the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
