Powerful Quake in Russia’s Far East Causes Tsunami, Hawaii Orders Evacuations

Reuters

11:35 JST, July 30, 2025

A magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres, damaging buildings and prompting evacuation warnings in the area and across most of Japan’s east coast, officials said.

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app, adding that a kindergarten was damaged.

A tsunami with a height of 3-4 meters was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations said, urging people to move away from the shoreline of the peninsula.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 kilometers, and was centred 126 kilometers eastsoutheast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay. It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan, Alaska and Hawaii. A tsunami watch was also in effect for the U.S. island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.

Hawaii ordered evacuations from some coastal areas. “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected,” the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management said on X.

An evacuation order for the small town of Severo-Kurilsk, south of the Kamchatka peninsula, was declared due to the tsunami threat, Sakhalin Gov. Valery Limarenko said on Telegram.

Several people sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister told Russia’s TASS state news agency.

“Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Melnikov said.

“All patients are currently in satisfactory condition, and no serious injuries have been reported so far.”

The Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said it was a very powerful earthquake.

“However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high … as one might expect from such a magnitude,” it said in a video on Telegram.

“Aftershocks are currently ongoing … Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future. The situation is under control.”

Kamchatka and Russia’s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.