Ammon News - A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered 4-metre (13-foot) tsunami waves and sparked evacuation orders across the Pacific on Wednesday.

The shallow earthquake damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan's eastern seaboard - devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 - was ordered to evacuate.

In Hawaii, coastal residents were told to get to high ground or the fourth floor or above of buildings, and the U.S. Coast Guard ordered ships out of harbours as the tsunami approached.

Tsunami waves reaching 10-13 feet struck parts of Kamchatka, partially flooding the port and a fish processing plant in the town of Severo-Kurilsk and sweeping vessels from their moorings, regional officials and Russia's emergency ministry said.

"Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred 119 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000.

It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier, and reported a series of strong aftershocks up to a magnitude of 6.9. Reuters