One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, sending tsunami waves into Japan and Hawaii and across the Pacific.

After powerful earth tremors in the Pacific Ocean, residents of several settlements in Kamchatka had been advised to climb to elevations 30-40 metres high or move at least 2-3 kilometres away from the coast because of the tsunami threat,

Kamchatka is a 1,250-kilometre-long peninsula located in the Far East of Russia. The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk serve as the eastern and western coastlines of the peninsula, respectively.