One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded happened off the Russian coast, triggering tsunami warnings from the U.S. west coast to South America. In Hawaii, people clamored to the top of high-rises and a traffic rush headed away from the coast.

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's Pacific coast on Tuesday, sparking tsunami warnings -- and evacuations of coastal areas -- in Hawaii and alerts all down the U.S. West Coast. After the initial tsunami waves had washed ashore in Hawaii and along the West Coast,