Japan issues tsunami warning after earthquake

15/11/2006 8:41:26 AM

Japan issued a tsunami warning and advised Pacific coast residents to head for higher ground after a powerful earthquake hit northeast of the country.

CTV.ca News Staff

The quake, which struck near the Kurile islands north of Japan, had a preliminary magnitude of 8.1.

The first waves of the tsunami, just 40 centimetres high, hit the northern coast of Japan at about 8 a.m. ET, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency.

The agency warned that larger waves could follow, but a second wave that later struck northern Japan was estimated at just 20 centimetres.

The earthquake struck about 1,700 kilometres northeast of Japan at 6:15 a.m., the agency reported.

British Columbia and the U.S. West Coast were initially expected to be spared the effects of the quake, but a tsunami watch was later issued for the B.C. coast by the Provincial Emergency Response Program.

The watch covers the province's north and central coasts to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and includes the west coast of Vancouver Island south to Sombrio Point.

The watch does not include the U.S. West Coast south to the California-Mexico border.

A higher level tsunami warning is in effect for the Alaska coastal areas from Dutch Harbour to Attu.

The PEP warned people in all low lying Pacific coast areas to be on the alert for local warnings.

Kiyoshi Takimoto, an official from the town of Shibetsu on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, told public broadcaster NHK that roughly 4,000 of the town's 6,100 residents lived along the coast and had been told to flee to higher ground.

Takimoto said he did not notice the quake. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, according to NHK.

There was no immediate word on whether the quake caused any damage or injuries in the Kurile islands.

John Cassidy, from the Canadian Geological Survey, said it would be 10 or 12 hours before any waves generated by the tsunami reached North America.

"A magnitude 8.1 earthquake is really the point where you start to see a tsunami," Cassidy said.

"It's not going to be a tsunami like Sumatra ... where giant waves hit, but certainly we'll know within the next hour or two what size of wave has been generated by this earthquake if a wave has been generated at all, because there is that potential also, that it could be a non-event."

The Kurile islands in Japan are also known as the Chishima islands. The Southern Kuriles, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, are the subject of a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia.