Tsunami alerts were issued for Alaska and Hawaii on Tuesday after a major, 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia, according to officials.

A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake has struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering a dramatic eruption of the towering Klyuchevskoy volcano. Lava poured down its slopes and explosions lit up the skies just hours after the quake sent tsunami waves racing across the Pacific.

The shallow tremor off the Kamchatka Peninsula 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, as were parts of Hawaii.