Japan issues tsunami advisory after quake hits near Russia's Kamchatka

Japan's meteorological agency said on Wednesday that a powerful, magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and issued a tsunami advisory for Japan.  The agency said the quake occurred at 8:25 am and registered a preliminary magnitude of 8. It issued an advisory for a tsunami of up to 1 metre along the Pacific coast of Japan.  So far no damage has been reported.  The quake was about 250 kilometers away from Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost of the country's four big islands, and was felt only slightly, according to Japan's NHK television.  The U.S. Geological Survey said it hit at a depth of 19.3 kilometers. The USGC said shortly after initial reports that the quake's strength was 8.7 magnitude.  There was no immediate information from Russia about how Kamchatka was affected.  The National Tsunami Warning Center, based in Alaska, issued a tsunami warning for parts of the Alaska Aleutian Islands, and a watch for portions of the West Coast, including California, Oregon, and Washington, and Hawaii.  The advisory also includes a vast swath of Alaska's coast line, including parts of the panhandle.  A University of Tokyo seismologist Shinichi Sakai told NHK that a distant earthquake could cause a tsunami that affects Japan if its epicenter is shallow.  Japan, part of the area known as the Pacific ring of fire, is one of the world's most quake-prone country.  Earlier in July, five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — struck in the sea near Kamchatka. The largest quake was at a depth of 20 kilometers and was 144 kilometers east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000.  On Nov. 4, 1952, a magnitude 9 quake in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-metre waves in Hawaii.