When a magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, officials warned that damaging tsunami waves could follow. Instead, the waves that reached Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast proved smaller than initially feared.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Russian coast on Tuesday, July 30, triggering a tsunami that sent waves as far as the U.S. west coast.

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.