The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake occurred at 10:24 a.m. on July 30 local time (624 a.m. Hanoi time) and recorded an initial intensity of 8.0 degrees richter. The intensity of the earthquake was later adjusted to 8.7 degrees richter.
The meteorological agency initially issued a warning for a 1m high sunflower along Japan's Pacific coast and then raised the warning to 3m.
"People living near the coast should immediately evacuate to higher ground or safe buildings in areas within the Tsunami warning zone from Hokkaido to Wakayama Prefecture hundreds of kilometers south," said Yoshimasa Hayashi, Chief of the Japanese cabinet Office. please note that, after the first song, the second and third song may be even higher.
Japanese NHK TV reported that the earthquake occurred about 250km from Hokkaido, one of Japan's four major islands, and was only slightly felt. The US Geological Survey said the center of the earthquake was at a depth of 19.3km.
According to the USGS, dangerous sunsones - some as high as 3m - could hit areas along the Russian and Japanese coasts in the next 3 hours.
A Tsunami warning has also been extended to the US state of Hawaii, with the Pacific City Wave Center under the National Weather Service saying a Tsunami from an earthquake could create damage along the coasts of all Hawaiian islands.
There is no immediate information from Russia about the level of impact in Kamchatka.
The US National Tsunami Warning Center, based in Alaska, has issued a Tsunami warning for parts of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and warnings for areas of the west coast, including California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
The warning also includes a large area along the coast of Alaska, including part of the basin area.
According to Japan's Tsunami warning, the first Tsunami is expected to hit east of Hokkaido about an hour and a half after the earthquake. The government said it has established a special task force to collect information and respond in case of emergency.
Seismologist Shinichi Sakai of Tokyo University told NHK that a distant earthquake could cause a Tsunami affecting Japan if the center of the earthquake was shaken.
Japan, part of the so-called Pacific Ring Road, is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.
In Russia, in early July, five strong earthquakes - the largest of which reached 7.4 Richter intensity - occurred in the waters near Kamchatka. The largest earthquake occurred at a depth of 20km and was centred east of the city of Petropavlovsk- Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000 people and is 144km east.
On November 4, 5, 5, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Kamchatka, Russia, caused damage but no deaths were reported despite creating 9.1m waves in Hawaii.
