Tsunami warning in Japan, Russia after Pacific quake

TOKYO, Jan 13 (Reuters) A tsunami warning was issued for northern Japan, Russia and a wide swathe of Japan's Pacific coast today after an earthquake with a preliminary 8.3 magnitude was recorded in the northern Pacific.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said that a tsunami watch was in effect for a wide area of the Pacific, including Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hawaii.

The first waves of the tsunami, which had been predicted to arrive shortly after 2 pm local (1030 hrs IST), were estimated to range up to 1 metre in Hokkaido.

There were no reports of any waves as of 2:51 pm but NHK public television said that officials in one coastal town in northeastern Honshu had said waters in the harbour had withdrawn slightly in what could be a prelude to a tsunami.

The Meteorological Agency said that smaller waves were likely to hit a large part of Japan's Pacific coastal areas from Hokkaido to Wakayama prefecture in western Japan on the largest main island of Honshu.

The USGS (US Geological Survey) put the quake magnitude at 7.9, a major tremor, and said its epicentre was 525 km east northeast of Kuril'sk, Kurile islands, and 1,710 km northeast of Tokyo.

Hokkaido officials urged residents to move to higher ground.

There was only moderate shaking in Hokkaido and no immediate reports of injury due to the quake.

''We have cars going around the city telling people to evacuate,'' said Takahiro Yamamoto, an official with the Monbetsu city government, told NHK public television.

An official in Nemuro said the city was urging residents to evacuate from coastal areas.

A tsunami warning was issued for the same area in November after a strong quake struck the Kurile islands, but in the end only small waves the highest 40 cm hit Japan.

A tsunami, Japanese for ''harbour wave,'' travels at dizzying speed in the open ocean and, when it approaches shallow water along a coast, slows and swells. In an inlet, it can rise to a towering height very quickly.

In 1993, a tsunami caused by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed about 200 people on the island of Okushiri, off Hokkaido's southwestern coast.

REUTERS SY RAI1208