Tsunami alerts in New Zealand and Chile after huge earthquake off Russian coast: Live updates

Kamchatka is one of the most active volcanic regions on Earth.

It has about 300 volcanoes, with 29 of them still active, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory. Quakes and tsunamis regularly strike the peninsula that lies close to an ocean trench where two tectonic plates meet.

The 1,200-kilometre-long peninsula nine time zones east of Moscow faces the Pacific Ocean on its east and the Sea of Okhotsk along its west coast.

The tallest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 meters or 15,584 feet), the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere. Observers heard explosions and saw streams of lava on its western slopes, according to the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ geophysical service.

Scientists have anticipated the eruption for some time, with the volcano’s crater filling with lava for weeks and the mountain emitting plumes of ash. It last erupted in 2023.

Chile evacuated five penitentiary facilities between the regions of Arica and Parinacota and Los Lagos.

It also evacuated 33 health facilities in the Tarapacá, Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso, O’Higgins, Maule, Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos regions located in the flood zone were evacuated (308 patients in total). Similarly, immunobiological stockpiles (vaccines and immunoglobulin) in the municipalities of Lebu and Talcahuano in the Biobío Region were moved to a safe area.

Operations are suspended at all ports from the Arica Region to the San Antonio Region; and no ships are operating in Talcahuano.

A tsunami is a series of waves that are generated by a large displacement of the ocean, often caused by large-scale disturbances like earthquakes or volanic eruptions under the sea.

“In this case, we’ve got an earthquake,” professor Ilan Kelman, specialising in disasters and health at University College London explained.

“So when the earthquake shakes the earth, let’s say it moves up and down on the sea floor. That means that there’s a quick movement of water moving up and down, which creates a wave that radiates out from where the earth shook.”

As the waves travel inland and the depth of the ocean decreases, the waves build up in height. The speed of the waves is determined by the depth of the ocean rather than the source, the US National Ocean Service explained.