The tsunami advisory was canceled Wednesday morning.
SEATTLE — A tsunami has been confirmed moving through the western Pacific following a powerful earthquake near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, prompting advisories and heightened monitoring across the region.
The tsunami advisory expired Wednesday morning for Washington after it was revised to include only the outer coastlines of Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties, stretching from the Columbia River estuary to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. While the advisory has been lifted for inner coastal areas, officials warned that strong or unusual currents may still affect those waters.
Harold Tobin, director of the University of Washington’s Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, said there is “certainly” a tsunami moving across the ocean and warned West Coast residents to take the situation seriously, even though the potential danger remains unclear.
“Get away from the coast — don’t go look,” Tobin said. “This is not an evacuation situation until we get more info, but these events should be taken seriously."
Experts closely watched how the waves behaved as they approached Hawaii, which is under a higher-level tsunami alert. The islands were expected to see potential impacts starting Tuesday night.
“It’s probably going to be one of the 10 largest that have been recorded since seismometers were invented more than 100 years ago,” Tobin said.
“That's the reason why people should take them seriously again. I'm cautiously optimistic that this will not produce a damaging event along our coastline, but that is certainly far from guaranteed, and people should pay attention to what the information is.”
Washington Emergency Management closed ocean beaches in anticipation of the tsunami, advising the public to avoid coastlines as the swells approached the Olympic Peninsula and neighboring shores. County-level officials on the peninsula and the San Juan Islands indicated they did not expect significant damage, despite a predicted wave surge of one foot or less.
Outside the Evergreen State, officials anticipated a more severe impact. In Hawaii, Gov. Josh Green warned of potential "significant damage" along coastlines, announcing that the Hilo Airport had closed as Hawaiian/Alaskan Airlines grounded flights to the islands.
Northern California was placed under a tsunami warning, an elevated level of caution for the region.
Tsunami makes landfall in Japan, Alaska
Waves less than a foot (under 30 centimeters) above tide levels were observed in the Alaskan communities of Amchitka and Adak, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska.
White waves washed up to the shoreline on Japan's Hokkaido in the north and Ibaraki and Chiba, just northeast of Tokyo, in footage aired on Japan's NHK public television.
A tsunami of 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) was detected at the Ishinomaki port in northern Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
That was the highest measurement so far among several locations around northern Japan. But higher waves were still arriving, said Shiji Kiyomoto, an earthquake and tsunami response official at JMA.
The impact of the tsunami could last for hours — such as in Adak, a community of about 70 people in Alaska's Aleutian Islands -- or perhaps more than a day, Snider said.
“A tsunami is not just one wave,” he said. “It’s a series of powerful waves over a long period of time. Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour -- as fast as a jet airplane -- in deep water. But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up. And that’s where that inundation problem becomes a little bit more possible there.”
“In this case, because of the Earth basically sending out these huge ripples of water across the ocean, they’re going to be moving back and forth for quite a while,” which is why some communities may feel effects longer, he said.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said data from Midway Atoll, which is between Japan and Hawaii, measured waves from peak to trough of 6 feet (1.8 meters). He said waves hitting Hawaii could be bigger or smaller, and it was too early to tell how large they would be. A tsunami of that size would be akin to a 3-foot (90 centimeter) wave riding on top of surf, he said.
“This is a longitudinal wave with great force driving through the shoreline and into land,” he said at a news conference.
Green said Black Hawk helicopters have been activated and high-water vehicles were ready to go in case authorities need to rescue people. “But please do not put yourself in harm’s way,” he said.
The following is information from the National Weather Service from 9:30 p.m. PST on when the event is expected to land on Washington state shores.
La Push 2335 PDT Jul 29
Neah Bay 2340 PDT Jul 29 less than 1ft
Long Beach 2345 PDT Jul 29 less than 1ft
Westport 2350 PDT Jul 29 less than 1ft
Moclips 2350 PDT Jul 29 less than 1ft
Port Angeles 0015 PDT Jul 30 less than 1ft
Port Townsend 0045 PDT Jul 30 less than 1ft
Bellingham 0110 PDT Jul 30 less than 1ft
Tacoma 0200 PDT Jul 30
The Associated Press contributed to this report.