Tsunami warnings in the Pacific were lifted today following the devastating earthquake in Chile.
Warnings had been issued in 53 countries around the Pacific Ocean - roughly a quarter of the globe.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii lifted the warning today after smaller-than-feared waves were reported in countries including Australia, Japan and Russia.
Tsunami waves of up to 1.5 metres hit far-flung Pacific regions from the Russian far east and Japan to New Zealand's remote Chatham Islands this morning.
Authorities ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Russia's Kamchatka to evacuate after yesterday's quake in Chile, one of the world's most powerful in a century, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
In Japan, a 1.45 metre tsunami hit the fishing port of Otsuchi on the north Pacific coast, Kyodo news agency said.
Smaller waves hit a swathe of the country from the small island of Minamitori 1,950km south of Tokyo to Hokkaido island in the north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Japanese officials have ordered or advised some 540,000 households along the country's Pacific coast to evacuate and said later waves could be much bigger.
