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Tsunami Events > 29 July 2025, Mw 8.8, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia Tsunami
On 29 July 2025 a Mww 8.8 (USGS) earthquake occurred at 23:24 UTC offshore Kamchatka, Russian Federation along the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone. It triggered a tsunami that was observed across the Pacific Basin. At the location of the earthquake the Pacific plate moves northwest and subducts beneath the Okhotsk microplate at a rate of 79 mm/yr.
The Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported splashes up to 19 meters in Baikovo (Shumshu Island, Northern Kuriles). The Institute of Oceanology in Moscow, Russian Federation informed that according to videos, in the Vestnik Bay located at the Kamchatka east coast about 180 km to south from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the maximum run-up (splash) was 18 meters.
Maximum observed amplitudes reported by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) were 1.74 meters in Kahulului, Maui, Hawaii southeast of the epicenter, 1.13 m in Crescent City, California, USA to the East-Southeast. 1.04 m in Baltra, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and 1.12 m in Coliumo, Chile both to the southeast.
The PTWC also reported readings on 8 DARTs across the Pacific. The largest amplitude recorded was .9 meters off the coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, the closest to the epicenter. It is the second largest DART amplitude ever recorded. The amplitudes on other DARTs reported by PTWC ranged from 2 to 28 cm. The observations from the five DARTs in the Northwest Pacific were used by the PTWC to provide the final inversion source for the tsunami forecast.
The earthquake occurred as the result of reverse faulting in the Kamchatka subduction zone at a depth of 35 km (USGS). The 29 July 2025, Mw 8.8 was preceded by seismic activity occurring offshore of the Kamchatka peninsula that began 10 days earlier including 50 Mw 5.0+ earthquakes and an Mw 7.4 earthquake on 20 July 2025, and three Mw 6.6 earthquakes (USGS).
The 29 July 2025, Mw 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake is the largest event to occur globally since the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake, and among the top ten largest earthquakes to occur globally since 1900. The largest megathrust earthquake to occur along the arc in the 20th century was the November 4, 1952 M 9.0 event, to date the 5th largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in history. This earthquake was followed by a devastating tsunami with run-up wave heights as high as 12 m along the coast of Paramushir, causing significant damage to the city of Severo-Kurilsk. On October 4, 1994, a large (M8.3) intraplate event occurred within the subducted oceanic lithosphere of the Pacific plate off the coast of Shikotan Island, causing intense ground shaking, landslides, and a tsunami with run-up heights of up to 10 m on the island (USGS).
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