Stephanie Sy:

In Japan, this aerial view of the eastern coast shows the menacing approach of the ocean. The powerful quake struck off the East Coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings in Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. The threat reached clear across the world, with Chile today upgrading its warning to the highest level and ordering evacuations.

In Russia, video showed the tremors hitting during surgery at an area hospital, doctors and nurses bracing to hold the patient steady. Cliffs were shaken from their foundations, cascading into the sea, which swelled with fury not long after the quake. The waves hit Russia’s coast first, sending a wall of water inland and flooding ports.

Eyewitness video captured the rushing waters carrying entire buildings away.

Simon Boxall, University of Southampton: It’s a bit like throwing a very, very large rock into the sea and then watching the waves propagate away from that rock, that splash. And so that’s what’s happened in this case and that’s why this particular one has generated a tsunami. It’s not huge.

It’s not one that’s going to cause mass devastation, but it will cause coastal flooding, and it will cause damage. And it does put lives at risk if people don’t move to high ground.