TOKYO, July 30 (Bernama-Kyodo) — The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday for the country’s Pacific coast after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, Kyodo News Agency reported.
The quake occurred 126 kilometres (km) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 18.2 km, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Whether damage or injuries have been sustained in the Russian Far East is unknown at this point.
Tsunami of up to 3 metres may hit the coast in Hokkaido, northern Japan, and the Ogasawara Islands in the south, according to Japan’s weather agency.
Jolts of 2 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale of 7 were observed in Hokkaido, the agency said.
— BERNAMA-KYODO
Meanwhile, a separate report by SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI/BERNAMA, datelined YAKUTSK (Russia), said the magnitude 8.7 earthquake was said to be the strongest the region has experienced since 1952 and that powerful aftershocks were expected over the next month.
Citing Russian seismologists from the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the report said that aftershocks of magnitudes up to 7.5 are expected over the next month.