Waves of up to five meters in Russia, mass evacuations in Japan, panic over giant waves in Hawaii, an erupting volcano, alerts in California and Alaska, Colombia, Mexico... A powerful earthquake has put the Pacific coast in jeopardy.

An magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula Wednesday morning, triggering a wave of tsunami warnings on both sides of the Pacific, from the west coast of the United States and South America, to Japan , China , some Southeast Asian nations and small islands in Oceania .

The quake struck at a depth of 18.2 kilometers (11.2 mi) below the seabed with an epicenter 126 kilometers (78 mi) off a remote, sparsely populated region that is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity. It was the largest earthquake recorded since the 9.1 magnitude earthquake that led to the devastating tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011. More than eight hours after the quake, Eurasia’s highest volcano, Klyuchevskaya (4,750 meters) in Kamchatka, erupted.

The worst hit was southeastern Kamchatka, with waves of up to five meters flooding the port city of Severo-Kurilsk, sweeping buildings and debris into the sea. The mayor assured that the town's 2,000 residents had been evacuated thanks to the rapid response of early warnings.

Waves measuring between 30 and 60 centimeters quickly hit the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan, about 740 kilometers southwest of Kamchatka. A few hours later, in Miyagi Prefecture, the Meteorological Agency recorded a tsunami with waves of 1.3 meters. Public broadcaster NHK reported that waves tore some structures from their foundations as they moved inland. Local networks broadcast images of many residents gathered on the rooftops of buildings.

Mass evacuations were immediate in Hokkaido and many coastal towns in Miyagi and Iwate, which suffered the worst devastation from the 2011 tsunami, which killed more than 18,000 people. Workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant were also evacuated. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said it had issued evacuation alerts for nearly two million people in 133 municipalities along Japan's coast, from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

In Hawaii, the first tsunami waves began arriving in mid-afternoon. One wave, more than 5 feet high, was recorded on the north coast of the tourist island of Maui. Governor Josh Green urged people to evacuate coastal areas, warning that waves would encircle the entire archipelago and could cause flooding. Civil defense sirens sounded twice on Oahu and Kauai, and operations were suspended at airports and college campuses. Green also said a 6-foot-high wave passed over Midway Atoll, located between Japan and Hawaii.

Hotels in coastal areas of Oahu began evacuating guests to higher ground, in coordination with local authorities. Shelters and emergency operations centers were also opened across the islands. Police urged people to avoid unnecessary travel to avoid obstructing evacuation routes, while traffic intensified in the capital, Honolulu, and other densely populated areas.

The U.S. Coast Guard ordered ships to leave Hawaiian ports until the tsunami threat passed. Vessels transiting near the Hawaiian Islands were forced to remain at sea until the situation improved. Before midnight, authorities lowered the alert and announced that the worst was over.

A tidal surge of 30 centimeters was observed on the Alaskan volcanic island of Amchitka. A tsunami warning was also in effect for several hours in California and other states on the US West Coast. The first floodwaters were seen in the Californian town of Crescent City, near the Oregon border.

Tsunami fears spread throughout the day to Pacific islands such as American Samoa, Palau, and Tonga, which issued alerts after forecasts of waves up to a meter above the usual tide. While no immediate threat was declared in the Cook Islands, authorities remain on"active watch." A resident of Saipan, the capital of the Mariana Islands, said there were long lines of cars at gas stations."It's good to be prepared," he said.

The memory of past false alerts and the growing vulnerability to extreme weather events prompted a very swift response from Pacific island communities.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia issued warnings for possible waves of one meter in height. In South and Central America, Peru, Chile, and Mexico joined the countries on tsunami alert. Ecuador, meanwhile, evacuated parts of the Galapagos Islands.

In China, authorities initially announced the"disastrous impact" of waves of up to one meter in Shanghai and neighboring Zhejiang province, which were already reeling from a powerful typhoon. More than 280,000 residents were relocated to safe areas due to the storm, and hundreds of flights were suspended. However, tsunami warnings were lifted in the afternoon.

While people in Asia were going to sleep, Colombia issued a red tsunami alert for the northeastern Chocó region, with authorities requesting beach evacuations. At the same time, Chile also issued an alert for Easter Island, home to 8,000 people. Meanwhile, waves of five feet tall began to crash in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, some 10,000 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter.

A series of powerful aftershocks shook Russia early Wednesday. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude 6.9 quake and a magnitude 6.3 quake, along with nine others measuring between 5.4 and 5.8, struck the same areas in the hours following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. The quake was the sixth strongest on record, according to USGS historical data. It ranks alongside the devastating 2010 Chile earthquake, which killed more than 500 people and caused widespread destruction, and the 1906 earthquake in Ecuador and Colombia, which triggered a tsunami that left more than 1,500 dead.

In a statement posted on a Telegram channel of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian scientists called the earthquake a"unique event" and warned that aftershocks could last for a month.

In Japan, one of the viral images of the day was the appearance of four stranded whales, between seven and eight meters long, very close to a beach. Initially, it was believed this was likely due to the sudden receding water level, but some experts pointed out that there is no evidence that the tsunami was the reason the whales stranded in that area.