17 hours ago
Last Updated:July 30, 2025, 07:40 IST
A powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering a tsunami up to 4 metres high and prompting widespread evacuations.
Passers-by watch a television broadcast of a tsunami warning for much of coastal Japan outside a gaming shop in central Tokyo (Photo: AFP)
A powerful magnitude 8.7 earthquake, the strongest since 1952, struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan on Wednesday, generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13 feet), thus prompting evacuations.
In Russia, a tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres (10-13 feet) was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, Sergei Lebedev, Reuters quoted the regional minister for emergency situations as saying.
The minister also urged people to move away from the shoreline of the peninsula.
The first tsunami from the massive earthquake was also observed in northern Japan, measuring around 30 centimetres (one foot), broadcaster NHK reported.
The wave hit the main northern island of Hokkaido, with NHK warning that subsequent waves could be much higher.
Japan’s weather agency said earlier that waves of up to three metres were expected all the way down the northern and eastern coasts of Japan, as far as Wakayama south of Osaka.
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred about 125 km (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay.
It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier.
Videos, widely shared on social media, showed the impact of the monstrous earthquake in Russia.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported from the biggest city nearby, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, that many people ran out into the street without shoes or outerwear.
Cabinets toppled inside homes, mirrors were broken, cars swayed in the street, and balconies on buildings shook noticeably.
Tass also reported power outages and mobile phone service failures in the capital of the Kamchatka region.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government said it set up a task force for information gathering and response in case of any emergency.
A University of Tokyo seismologist, Shinichi Sakai, earlier told NHK that a distant earthquake could cause a tsunami that affects Japan if its epicentre is shallow, the Associated Press reported.
The US Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves" within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan and Hawaii.
A tsunami watch was also in effect for the US island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.
An evacuation order for the small town of Severo-Kurilsk, south of the peninsula, was declared due to the tsunami threat.
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Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
News world Tsunami Hits Russia, Japan After Massive 8.7 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Far East
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