JAPAN has been hit by small tsunami waves following a powerful earthquake off the east coast. Damage and injuries are being assessed after the double-tap threats hours apart, which saw thousands

At 11:15 p.m. on Monday, December 8, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake ruptured the seafloor 80 kilometers off Aomori Prefecture, 54 kilometers beneath the surface. The tremor lasted only seconds, but for Daiki Shimohata and his two children in their Aomori home,

No one died in Washington, though four members of the McKinzie family from Tacoma drowned while camping on a beach in Newport, Oregon. A woman in Gearhart, Oregon, died of a heart attack after a wave hit her home, and 11 people died in Crescent City, California. The quake and tsunami killed 115 people in Alaska.

The Pacific tsunami, triggered by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia on July 30th, was captured and documented by satellites orbiting earth.