TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The powerful earthquake that struck Russia’s far eastern coast has had a significant impact on Japan, with the first tsunami waves reaching the country.
A tsunami with a height of approximately 30 centimeters has already hit the main northern island of Hokkaido, according to NHK broadcaster, as reported by Al Arabiya.
NHK has warned that subsequent waves could be much larger.
The Japan Meteorological Agency had previously forecast that waves as high as three meters were expected along the northern and eastern coasts of Japan, extending as far south as Wakayama in Osaka.
In response to the quake, workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was devastated by a tsunami in 2011, were evacuated. “We have evacuated all workers and staff at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant,” said a spokesperson for the plant’s operator, TEPCO.
The magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia. According to Sky News, the earthquake generated a four-meter tsunami in the Kamchatka Peninsula, leading to the collapse of some buildings and the evacuation of residents.
In addition to Japan, tsunami warnings were also announced in Hawaii and parts of Alaska. “Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” said Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov, as quoted by Sky News.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initially reported the earthquake’s magnitude as 8.0 but has since revised it to 8.7. The USGS stated that the shallow earthquake had a depth of 19.3 km and was centered about 125 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city with a population of 165,000 on the coast of Avacha Bay.
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