Japan issued a tsunami alert today and told Pacific coast residents to flee to higher ground after a powerful earthquake hit off sparsely populated islands between northern Japan and the Russian Far East.

Residents along Japan’s Pacific coast were told to flee an impending tsunami after a powerful earthquake with preliminary magnitude 8.1 hit the Kuril islands north of Japan today.

Two earthquakes jolted Anchorage, Alaska, making buildings shudder and knocking items off shelves.

A strong earthquake shook the northwest of America today, shattering windows in downtown Seattle and rattling Portland, Oregon.