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Tsunami waves rose to 5-6 meters in Kamchatka and Kuril Islands

"There is little reason to anticipate new powerful earthquakes of similar magnitude in the near future, as the strongest tremor has already occurred," head of the tsunami laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Igor Medvedev added

MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Tsunami waves triggered by the earthquake in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands reached heights of 5-6 meters, head of the tsunami laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Igor Medvedev said.

"This is a significant tsunami. According to visual observations, wave heights rose to 5-6 meters at several locations in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands," Medvedev stated.

Currently, only a few automated tsunami monitoring stations in Russia’s Far East are operational and capable of measuring wave heights. These stations recorded tsunami waves reaching up to one meter. Similarly, foreign monitoring stations in Japan, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii reported tsunami waves of comparable height.

"There is little reason to anticipate new powerful earthquakes of similar magnitude in the near future, as the strongest tremor has already occurred," Medvedev added.

 

About the earthquake

 

A strong earthquake occurred in the morning near the shores of Kamchatka, with its magnitude reaching 8.8 according to various estimates. It became the strongest earthquake since 1952. Later, seismologists recorded strong repeated earthquakes with a magnitude of between 5.1-5.8. According to the regional health ministry, several people sought medical assistance, with the number of calls to ambulance teams increasing. A wall collapsed in a kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with no casualties. A regional headquarters has been deployed to coordinate the actions of departments and services. A tsunami wave about 30 cm high following the earthquake in Kamchatka reached the northern part of Japan. The port of Severo-Kurilsk in the Sakhalin Region and a fishing enterprise were flooded by a tsunami wave.