This image taken from a video released by Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shows the aftermath of tsunami hitting the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk at Paramushir island of Kuril Islands, Russia, Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences via AP)
HONOLULU – One of this century’s most powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia and generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a broad section of the Pacific, including Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast and as far south as New Zealand. Now warnings are being downgraded in most areas, though advisories remain in place as more aftershocks are possible.
The quake registered a magnitude of 8.8 and was centered off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck early Wednesday local time, which was still Tuesday in the U.S.
The 8.8-magnitude quake was among the four strongest earthquakes this century, according to the USGS.
It was also the sixth-biggest quake ever recorded, said Simon Boxall, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Southampton’s Physical Oceanography Research Center.
The regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Ministry on Kamchatka warned that scientists expect aftershocks at magnitudes of up to 7.5.
The earthquake occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where more than 80% of the world’s largest quakes occur. Several tectonic plates meet there. The ring gets its name from the volcanoes that surround it.
While not all earthquakes lead to tsunamis, this one generated a series of them spreading outward from the epicenter off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
“It’s a bit like throwing a very, very large rock into the sea and then watching the waves propagate away from that rock, that splash,’’ Boxall said. “And so that’s what’s happened in this case. And that’s why this particular one has generated a tsunami. It’s not huge. It’s not one that’s going to cause mass devastation. But it will cause coastal flooding and it will cause damage, and it does put lives at risk if people don’t move to high ground.’’
A tsunami height of 10 to 13 feet was recorded in Kamchatka, while tsunami waves about 2 to 5 feet high reached San Francisco early Wednesday, officials said. Other areas have seen smaller waves.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said initial reports showed there had been no safety impact on nuclear power plants along Japan’s Pacific coast. Damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake’s epicenter, and officials declared a state of emergency in several areas. Several people were injured, but none gravely, and no major damage has been reported.
