Tsunami Advisories In Effect For California, Oregon, Washington -- US Seismologists

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) - Tsunami advisories remain in effect for the US states of California, Oregon and Washington following the magnitude 8.7 earthquake that struck off the coast of Kamchatka Peninsula, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported, based on the latest data from the US National Tsunami Warning Center.

The earthquake struck at 23:24 GMT on Tuesday. The Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Wednesday that the earthquake’s magnitude was estimated at 8.7 and that it was the strongest earthquake in the Kamchatka seismic zone since 1952.

The US National Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami warning for Aleutian Islands, Smalga Pass, Alaska to Attu, Alaska (including the Pribilof Islands). At the same time, tsunami advisories are in effect for California, including San Francisco Bay; Oregon, including the Columbia River estuary coast; and Washington state.

Tsunami advisories have also been issued for British Columbia and South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula.

In its latest update, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) put the earthquake’s magnitude at 8.7, saying that it struck 126 kilometers (78 miles) southeast of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, at a depth of 18 kilometers.

The Japan Meteorological Agency estimated that the earthquake's magnitude was 8 and issued a tsunami warning, saying that waves of up to three meters (9.8 feet) were expected.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday morning that there were no casualties on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula as a result of the magnitude 8.7 earthquake.

--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK