It has been one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded – but so far has not brought the catastrophic tsunami that many feared.
When the 8.8-magnitude quake struck eastern Russia at 11:25 local time on Wednesday (00:25 BST), it raised concerns for coastal populations across the Pacific.
Millions of people were evacuated, as minds cast back to the devastating tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 in the Indian Ocean and Japan 2011, both triggered by similarly large earthquakes.
But today's tsunami has been much less severe, even though it's brought some damage.
So what caused the earthquake and tsunami – and why wasn't it as bad as initially feared?
