Why one of the world’s biggest earthquakes wasn’t followed by a monster tsunami

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake one of the most powerful ever recorded struck off the coast of eastern Russia late Tuesday, causing intense shaking fo...

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake - one of the most powerful ever recorded - struck off the coast of eastern Russia late Tuesday, causing intense shaking for minutes, rattling windows and damaging infrastructure nearby. In the following hours, people in Japan, Hawaii and along the U.S. West Coast braced for an often deadly effect of coastal earthquakes: a tsunami.

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, at least so far.

Some areas of South America are still preparing for an incoming tsunami.

Researchers and response teams are still uncovering specific details about the event, but better warning systems and the other properties of the quake beyond its strength may have mitigated the effects so far.

"It definitely created a Pacific-wide tsunami, which in the context of tsunamis is quite large,” said Tina Dura, a tsunami researcher at Virginia Tech. "But it’s a little bit smaller than could be possible in that magnitude of earthquake.”