KUALA LUMPUR – A powerful 8.7-magnitude undersea earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula today, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders across the Pacific, including in Japan, Hawaii and parts of the US West Coast.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 8.25am local time (4.25am Malaysian time), occurred at a depth of 19.3km, about 125km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. It had initially reported the quake as 8.0 in magnitude before revising it upward.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a tsunami warning for wide areas along its Pacific coast, forecasting waves of up to 3m in regions including Hokkaido and the Ogasawara Islands. Evacuation orders were issued from Hokkaido to Wakayama, Kyodo News reported.
Meanwhile, Public broadcaster NHK warned that tsunamis could strike repeatedly and urged residents to move to higher ground. Videos on social media showed evacuees in Hokkaido gathering at elevated points near the coast.
The US Tsunami Warning System also issued alerts for “hazardous tsunami waves” along parts of Russia, Japan and Hawaii, with a tsunami watch declared for Guam and Micronesia. Authorities in California, Alaska and along the broader US West Coast issued coastal advisories.
In Kamchatka, tsunami waves of up to 4m were recorded, damaging buildings and forcing evacuations. Regional emergency minister Sergei Lebedev, quoted by Russian media, urged residents to stay away from the shoreline.
Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on Telegram that the earthquake was “the strongest in decades of tremors”. He confirmed that a kindergarten had been damaged and structural inspections were ongoing.
Russia’s TASS news agency quoted regional health minister Oleg Melnikov as saying several people were injured during evacuation, including one person who jumped from a window and another who was hurt inside an airport terminal. All are reported to be in stable condition.
The USGS noted that the epicentre lies near the fault zone responsible for the 1952 Kamchatka earthquake – a magnitude 9.0 event that triggered a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami.
Emergency services remain on high alert across affected regions, with the risk of aftershocks and further wave activity still under assessment. – July 30, 2025