Nations across the Pacific Ocean watched nervously for signs of a tsunami generated by a massive earthquake in Japan,with Taiwan feeling only a muted impact but regions ranging from the Philippines to New Zealand to the U.S. state of Hawaii waiting for the waves to reach their shores.
The 8.9 magnitude quake generated tsunami warnings on both sides of the ocean, a legacy of past earthquake-generated waves that killed hundreds of thousands of people over the past decade. Friday's quake ? one of the biggest in history ? generated 10-meter (33 foot) waves in Japan. Authorities in the Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, the Philippines and New Zealand issued tsunami alerts.