MOSCOW, Jan 1, 2024 (AFP) – Russia’s Sakhalin island and the Pacific city of Vladivostok were on “alert” Monday to a possible tsunami risk after a major earthquake in Japan.
The alerts came after the powerful 7.5 earthquake in Japan prompted tsunami warnings, with Japanese authorities urging people to move to higher ground.
Sakhalin is an elongated island north of Japan and Vladivostok is Russia’s main Pacific city.
Authorities in Sakhalin said the island’s west coast could be affected by tsunami waves, but stressed they would not cause a major threat to life on the island and did not order evacuations.
Emergency services called on people to “remain calm”.
“Coastal parts of the western coast of Sakhalin may be affected by tsunami waves,” emergency services said.
“At the moment… the population is not being evacuated, since the expected height of the wave is no more than 50 centimetres,” it said.
Waves were expected to reach the southern tip of the island, in the Nevelsky district, at 8:44 pm local time (0944 GMT).
Authorities stressed that the expected height of the waves “do not pose a life threat to the population.”
The city of Vladivostok also introduced a tsunami alert.
“Fishermen and everyone who plans to go out to sea, has to urgently come back to shore,” city authorities said on social media.
It said it expected waves to rise to “0.3 meters”
