One of the most powerful earthquakes in modern history shook Russia’s remote east coast Wednesday, sending tsunami waves hurtling across the Pacific Ocean and putting nations from Japan to the United States to Chile on high alert with millions urged to evacuate.

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami waves of up to 5 metres.

When a magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, officials warned that damaging tsunami waves could follow. Instead, the waves that reached Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast proved smaller than initially feared.

A magnitude 8.2 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed more than 5,200 people on Dec. 30, 1703, according to NOAA data. The event occurred off the southwest Boso Peninsula, which is just south of Tokyo, Japan.

Past strong earthquakes have caused massive and damaging waves far away, but scientists say these tsunami waves were tame by comparison across the Pacific basin.

One of this century’s most powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia and generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a broad section of the Pacific as far south as New Zealand

A tsunami sent waves into parts of Russia, Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Russian Far East early Wednesday. The quake was one of the biggest ever recorded.