UPDATE: Russia Issues, Then Cancels, Tsunami Warning After 8.2 Quake in Sea of Okhotsk

View Larger Map

May 24, 2013 - Whew! That tsunami warning was canceled -- 10 minutes after Russia issued it. "Russian emergency authorities lifted a tsunami warning on Friday several minutes after they announced one, following an earthquake in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's eastern coast," reports Terra.com.

"Russian authorities have lifted a tsunami warning," reports Russia Today, "for the Sakhalin region and Kuril Islands following a strong 8.2-magnitude earthquake that rattled the Sea of Okhotsk. The aftershocks were felt as far away as Moscow, over 9,000 kilometers away."

This was a very powerful quake, felt far and wide. "Many parts of China were also affected by the quake. People from different provinces said they felt the quake, among them Heilongjiang, Gansu, Hubei, Chongqing, Jiangsu and Sichuan. No damage was reported from China," according to Earthquake Report. "In Moscow at least two office buildings were evacuated due to the quake. Several hundred people had to leave their workplace for some time. There are no damages reported, but some people in Moscow said they experienced an aftershock." Earthquake Report also noted that "a reader from Finland told us that this quake was felt there," and that "this quake was also felt in St. Petersburg on Baltic Sea."

To put that in perspective, it would be as though an earthquake struck in northern Alaska and was so strong that it was felt strongly in Miami Beach.

The time of the quake was approximately 02:00 AM ET (New York time). Location: 251 miles (404 km) WNW of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia; 1476 miles (2376 km) NNE of TOKYO, Japan. More details about this earthquake at USGS.

An earlier report: "Russian authorities have issued a tsunami warning for the country's eastern coastline after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk. There have been no initial reports of damage or injury from the quake, which hit about 2,375 kilometres north-east of Tokyo." - ABC News Australia

ALASKA, HAWAII WERE NOT THREATENED:
Hawaii was in no danger, reported Maui Now, which also said that "[the earthquake] follows two large earthquakes reported earlier today near Tonga -- one at 7:19 a.m. HST that measured 7.4 in magnitude and located 174 miles SW of Vaini, Tonga; and another at 11:08 a.m. HST that measured 6.5 in magnitude and located 30 miles NNW of Nuku`alofa, Tonga." Alaska was also in the clear, according to tsunami.gov.