One of the most powerful earthquakes in modern history shook Russia’s remote east coast Wednesday, sending tsunami waves hurtling across the Pacific Ocean and putting nations from Japan to the United States to Chile on high alert with millions urged to evacuate.

One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded has sent a tsunami crashing into a Russian port and smaller waves barreling across the Pacific to the Americas and south to New Zealand.

The earthquake, centered about 78 miles southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ranks among the "top six strongest" ever recorded, The Washington Post said. The deadly tsunami-sparking quakes off Japan in 2011 and Indonesia in 2004 were both roughly 2.8 times more powerful, at magnitude 9.1.