Massive earthquake sends tsunami across Pacific

What happened

A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula Tuesday triggered tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean. Russia said the shallow quake caused damage in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and elsewhere on the peninsula and flooded the Kuril Islands with waves as high as 19 feet. Smaller waves were reported in Japan and Hawaii, where hundreds of thousands of people were urged to evacuate to higher ground.

Tsunami alerts were also in effect in Alaska, the U.S. West Coast and down the Pacific Rim to New Zealand.

Who said what

The earthquake, centered about 78 miles southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ranks among the "top six strongest" ever recorded, The Washington Post said. The deadly tsunami-sparking quakes off Japan in 2011 and Indonesia in 2004 were both roughly 2.8 times more powerful, at magnitude 9.1.

Tsunamis can "travel more than 500 miles per hour in deep water," The New York Times said, but "despite their portrayals in Hollywood films," they are not "tall, curling tidal waves that could be surfed." Instead, said The Associated Press, they are "typically multiple waves that rush ashore like a fast-rising tide."

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What next?

Initial tsunami waves of up to 4.5 feet high hit California and Washington around 1 a.m. local time, and they were expected to build through the night, according to the National Weather Service. "We haven't seen a big wave," Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) said Tuesday night local time. But "we don't want anyone to let their guard down."