Quake triggers tsunami alert in Japan and Russia

A POWERFUL undersea earthquake prompted tsunami warnings yesterday for Japan and Russia but the danger appeared to pass after a series of tiny waves hit the northern Japanese coast.

The waves did not swell higher than 16 inches and rapidly diminished in size.

The agency told coast residents to flee to higher ground after predicting that a six-and-half-foot tsunami would hit the Pacific coast of its northernmost island of Hokkaido and main island of Honshu.

A wave that hit the port of Nemuro, on Hokkaido, was measured at 16 inches.

A few minutes later, an eight-inch wave hit the nearby port city of Kushiro, the agency said.

Takeshi Hachimine, chief of the Japanese meteorological agency’s earthquake and tsunami monitoring section, said aftershocks of yesterday’s quake could trigger more tsunami — but those waves are expected to pose little danger to Japan.

The quake struck yesterday morning with a preliminary magnitude of 8.1 about 390 kilometres east of the island known in Japan as Etorofu, which is about 175km north-east of Hokkaido, according to the Japanese meteorological agency.

Etorofu is one of four islands claimed by both Japan and Russia.

The disputed islands are known in Russia as the Southern Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. Etorofu is known in Russia as Iturup.

A tsunami warning was issued for the Kurils and Sakhalin, a large island that lies between the Kuril chain and Russia’s eastern coast, but was later lifted.