A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered 4-metre (13-foot) tsunami waves and sparked evacuation orders across the Pacific on Wednesday.
The shallow earthquake damaged buildings, injured several people and even caused a volcano to erupt in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan's eastern seaboard - devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 - was ordered to evacuate.
Tsunami alarms sounded in coastal towns across Japan's Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of people.
Dozens were seen waiting on the roofs of buildings in areas under threat in Japan as they prepared for the damage.
Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said.
In Hawaii, coastal residents were told to get to high ground or the fourth floor or above of buildings, and the U.S. Coast Guard ordered ships out of harbours as the tsunami approached.
The Klyuchevskoy volcano on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula began erupting after the powerful earthquake, a geological monitoring service said.
In a statement posted on Telegram, the Russian Academy of Sciences' United Geophysical Service said: "A descent of burning hot lava is observed on the western slope. Powerful glow above the volcano, explosions."
Located around 450 km (280 miles) north of the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Klyuchevskoy is one of the highest volcanoes in the world.
It has erupted several times in recent years.
Watch: Doctors in Kamchatka, Russia kept calm during the powerful quake and never stopped the surgery #Japan #Hawaii #Russia#Tsunami #earthquakes #tsunamihawaii #tsunamijapan pic.twitter.com/iKgfkVdGXu
— JUST IN | World (@justinbroadcast) July 30, 2025
Meanwhile, a team of medics was in the middle of surgery in the Far Eastern Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky when the earthquake shook their equipment and the floor beneath them.
The medics used their hands to try to steady both the patient and their equipment, CCTV footage released by the Kamchatka region's Health Ministry showed.
"Despite the danger, the doctors remained calm and stayed with the patient until the very end," Oleg Melnikov, the minister, wrote on Telegram.
He gave no details of the surgery but added that the patient was currently out of danger.
Further footage showed offices shaking in the Russian city.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no casualties in Russia from the earthquake off Kamchatka, for which he credited solid building construction and the smooth working of alert systems.
Local authorities in French Polynesia issued a tsunami warning for the Marquesas Islands archipelago, with waves of 1.10 to 2.20 metres expected to hit the islands of Ua Huka, Nuku Hiva, and Hiva Oa overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Residents were urged to move to higher ground and follow official instructions, including securing boats or moving them away from the shore.
Other archipelagos in French Polynesia may be affected by waves less than 30 cm high, which do not require evacuation or sheltering, local authorities said.
A couple travelling from Lowestoft in Suffolk to New Zealand were caught up in French Polynesia, waiting for the waves to pass.
Mike Beech told The Standard: “My wife Helen and I are on a small yacht at anchor at Raiatea French Polynesia awaiting the waves.
“I think the predictions say it should reach us at about 1am are time.
“We are hoping the reef will protect us when it comes the predictions are 3m to 1m here.
“But it is hard to find information about it. Just to make matters worse, we have high wind and lightning forecast at the same time.”
