"It's not one that's going to cause mass devastation. But it will cause coastal flooding and it will cause damage and it does put lives at risk if people don't move to high ground," an oceanography professor says.

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded has hit off Russia’s sparsely populated Far East. It sent tsunami waves into Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

Regional authorities in one region declared an emergency after a tsunami hit the Kuril Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula was watching for volcanic activity.