On Wednesday, a strong magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia caused tsunami waves up to 5 meters (16 feet) in height in the immediate area and prompted evacuation orders as far away as Hawaii and throughout the Pacific.
While majority of Japan’s eastern seaboard, which was devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011, was urged to evacuate, the shallow earthquake in the isolated Russian region damaged structures and injured a number of people.
In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a group of medical professionals were performing surgery while the tremors rocked their tools and the floor below them, according to video footage made public by the region’s health ministry.
