By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

The ripple effects of a very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka coast takes the focus today as the quake triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Japan, French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula.

The earthquake damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan's eastern seaboard – devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii.

The tremor also coincided with Typhoon Co-May in China as Shanghai relocated more than 280,000 people, halted hundreds of flights and ferry services and imposed speed limits on roads and railways as a tropical storm whipped its eastern region with gales and heavy rain.

Landfall by Co-May in the port city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang province was soon followed by warnings of a tsunami set off by the powerful earthquake off Russia's Far East.

Also on my radar today:

A kindergarten damaged by the quake in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Krai, Russia via handout video. Russian Ministry for Emergencies/Handout via REUTERS

The quake off Russia that triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific occurred on what is known as a "megathrust fault", where the denser Pacific Plate is sliding underneath the lighter North American Plate, scientists said.

The Pacific Plate has been on the move, making the Kamchatka Peninsula area off Russia's coast especially vulnerable to such tremors – and bigger aftershocks cannot be ruled out, they said.

With its epicenter near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, it was the biggest earthquake since the devastating Tohuku quake in 2011, which caused a tsunami that sent Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into meltdown.

The Kamchatka area experienced a magnitude 9 event in November 1952, wiping out the town of Severo-Kurilsk and causing extensive damage as far away as Hawaii, said Roger Musson, honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey.

"It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes," said Yaroslav, 25, in the city after Thursday’s quake.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no casualties in Russia, crediting solid building construction and the smooth operation of alert systems.

The worst flooding central Europe has seen in at least two decades has killed at least 18 people, as authorities in some areas counted the cost of the trail of destruction left by the deluge while others prepared for the crisis to reach them.

Tens of thousands of households were left without power in Romania and the Czech Republic, where more rainfall is forecast in the coming days. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, southern Germany and parts of Austria are also expected to see more heavy rain.

Rivers were still spilling banks in the Czech Republic, while the River Danube was rising in Slovakia and Hungary, and flooding has also affected Austria.

The Czech-Polish border areas are among the worst-hit since the weekend, as gushing, debris-filled rivers devastated some towns, collapsing or damaging bridges and destroying houses.

In Romania, flooding affected eight counties, the country's emergency unit said, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited hard-hit Galati county, where four people were found dead, about 5,000 homes were damaged and 25,000 were without power.

A low-pressure system named Boris has triggered downpours from Austria to Romania, leading to some of the worst flooding in nearly three decades in hard-hit areas in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Palestinian woman Najla Abu Aya feeds five-month-old daughter, Rama, who is malnourished at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Gaus Azam, a principal research scientist at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development at a farm in Grass Valley, Australia. REUTERS/Hollie Adams 

Today’s spotlight shines a light on innovation in farming in a warming world.

Growers and researchers in Australia have dramatically increased crop yields through new agricultural techniques, despite intensifying environmental challenges.

This account of how Australia’s wheat growers defied the climate odds is based on interviews with more than 20 farmers and researchers, a review of more than a dozen academic papers and an examination of decades of farm and weather data. Reuters visited four farms, a seed-breeding company and two government research facilities. Click here for the full Reuters special report.