Horror moment Japan tsunami sends gigantic wall of water smashing into coast

Huge waves generated by a monster tsunami crashed against the coast in eastern Japan as two million people have been told to evacuate.

A tsunami hit coastal areas of Russia ’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido after a powerful, 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia early today. Warnings are also in place for Alaska, Hawaii and other coasts south toward New Zealand. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said a tsunami as high as two feet had been detected as the waves moved south along the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Tokyo Bay. Officials urged caution, saying that bigger waves could come later.

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Damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake’s epicenter on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

And footage from Kanagawa and Chiba in eastern Japan shows large waves crashing onto beaches with action plans now put in place in case coastal areas are flooded.

Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said nearly two million residents are now under evacuation advisories in more than 220 municipalities along the Pacific coast as of midday Wednesday.

It added that one person was slightly injured on the northern island of Hokkaido when a woman in her 60s fell while rushing to evacuate. She was taken to a hospital.

Shiji Kiyomoto, a JMA earthquake and tsunami response official, said second or third tsunami waves of tsunami had arrived. Kiyomoto did not say when tsunami alerts would be lifted, and said high waves may last for at least a day, urging residents to stay at safe places.

Japan has suspended the operation of nuclear plants along the Pacific coasts amid concerns about a repeat of the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Authorities fear for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which is still a site of international scrutiny more than a decade later.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), which operates the facility, confirmed that around 4,000 workers had taken shelter on higher ground.

In the 2011 disaster, a series of waves, some as high as 14 metres, overwhelmed coastal defences and knocked out backup generators at Fukushima. That failure triggered a triple reactor meltdown, hydrogen explosions, and a mass release of radiation into the air and sea.

Tsunamis are waves triggered by earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions and submarine landslides. After an underwater earthquake, the seafloor rises and drops, which lifts water up and down. The energy from this pushes sea water that transfers to waves.

Many people think of tsunamis as one wave. But they are typically multiple waves that rush ashore like a fast-rising tide. Some tsunamis are small and don’t cause damage. Others can cause massive destruction. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, causing waves that leveled remote villages, ports and tourist resorts along the Indian Ocean across Southeast and South Asia.