A tsunami warning issued for Hawaii after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, an 8.8 magnitude in Russia's Far East, was downgraded to an advisory after small waves peaked.

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.

The 8.8 magnitude temblor struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, an isolated strip along the Pacific Ocean, overnight. Residents of the peninsula fled inland as 16-foot waves caused flooding.