Powerful Earthquake Hits Kamchatka: Tsunami Concerns Arise

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 has struck near the coast of Russia's Kamchatka region early on Sunday, according to earthquake monitoring agencies. The tremor has triggered concerns of potential tsunami waves in the region, prompting vigilance from Russian emergency services.

The quake occurred off the east coast of Kamchatka at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, shortly following a preceding tremor as per data from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Reports from the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) corroborated the quake's magnitude at 7.4, while GFZ revised its preliminary 6.7 magnitude estimation to conform with these findings.

Russia's TASS news agency indicated, citing local emergency sources, that tsunami waves reaching up to 60 centimeters might impact the Aleutsky District on the Commander Islands, with 40 centimeters projected in the Ust-Kamchatsky area. Meanwhile, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the region's most densely populated urban district, could see waves rise up to 15 centimeters. The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, however, has retracted a previous tsunami watch for Hawaii.