ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A massive earthquake near Russia triggered tsunami warnings and advisories for parts of Western Alaska along the Aleutian Islands on Tuesday.

Watch the livestream above for the latest updates.

The first set of tsunami waves have been observed following the earthquake, including a 0.8-foot wave in Amchitka Alaska. A 1.1-foot wave was observed in Hanasaki Japan, and an 0.2-foot wave was seen in Nikolskoe Russia.

A reminder that the first waves are not the biggest, and a tsunami is a series of waves, not a single wave. Additional waves are expected for hours in some locations in the western Aleutians.

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula at 3:24 p.m. Alaska time triggered a tsunami warning for several Alaskan locations, including Shemya, Adak, and Saint Paul.

A map of the earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29, 2025.

Estimated times of arrival for any potential waves were expected at 4:46 p.m. in Shemya, 5:46 p.m. in Adak, and 7:06 p.m. in Saint Paul, according to the National Weather Service.

Tsunami arrival times in Alaska following M8.7 earthquake near Russia

A tsunami watch — the lightest of NOAA’s warning system — is in effect for coastal regions of Kodiak Island, the Kenai Peninsula, and the upper Cook Inlet, and also extends down to Southeast Alaska.

A tsunami warning also was extended to the U.S. state of Hawaii, with the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying a tsunami from the quake had been generated that could cause damage along the coastlines of all the Hawaiian islands.

Japan’s meteorological agency issued a tsunami alert for Japan’s Pacific coast, upgrading an earlier advisory stemming from the quake that hit on Wednesday morning local time in Japan.

Tsunami alerts issued for coastal region of Alaska

Russia’s Tass news agency reported from the biggest city nearby, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, that many people ran out into the street without shoes or outerwear. Cabinets toppled inside homes, mirrors were broken, cars swayed in the street and balconies on buildings shook noticeably.

Tass also reported power outages and mobile phone service failures in the capital of the Kamchatka region.

The earthquake appeared to be the strongest anywhere in the world since the March 2011 earthquake off northeast Japan that measured 9.0 magnitude and caused a massive tsunami that set off meltdowns at a Fukushima nuclear power plant. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured around the world.

The earthquake comes just almost two weeks after the last tsunami warnings were issued for coastal regions of Alaska after a magnitude 7.3 quake struck off the coast of the Aleutians, near the community of Sand Point. In that event, a six-inch wave was confirmed in Kodiak by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.