The strongest earthquake in the last 70 years occurred in Kamchatka

A tsunami threat was issued in the region, as well as in Hawaii, Alaska, New Zealand and Japan.

On July 30, the strongest earthquake in the region since 1952 occurred off the coast of Kamchatka, the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported. According to the regional governor Vladimir Solodov, its magnitude was 8.8 points. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was the world's most powerful since 2011 and one of the 10 strongest since 1900.

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Several buildings were destroyed in Kamchatka

“This is definitely an outstanding event. <...> Apparently, this is a classic subduction earthquake; the solution of the source is unlikely to bring us surprises,” says a statement from the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to Solodov, this is “the strongest earthquake in the entire instrumental period,” and regular long-lasting aftershocks are expected.

Several buildings in Kamchatka were damaged, including the airport terminal, where a ceiling tile fell on a woman’s head. As Amur Mash writes, she was hospitalized. The wall of the kindergarten collapsed, but there were no casualties. The earthquake caught doctors during an operation at the Kamchatka Oncology Center - they continued it, despite the shaking.

In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a school that was being repaired was destroyed. No one was hurt. The children's city hospital was also seriously damaged and its work was stopped.

Four tsunami waves hit Severo-Kurilsk

In Severo-Kurilsk, according to the governor of the Sakhalin region Valery Limarenko, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 occurred, and four tsunami waves hit the city. Residents were evacuated, there were no casualties or serious damage. The city's power supply was cut off.

“There was a fourth wave, but it was weak. The most serious was the third wave, which did a lot of things. It damaged the infrastructure of the port, the entire small fleet was pulled out to sea, it is now dangling in the strait, some of the ships were washed ashore. Now private business will assess its losses, and they exist,” said the mayor of Severo-Kurilsk, Alexander Ovsyannikov.

Against the backdrop of the earthquake, a tsunami threat was declared in the Kamchatka Territory, Sakhalin Region, Japan, China, New Zealand, the Philippines, as well as Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands in the USA. According to the Japan Meteorological Service, the tsunami reached the coast of the country, in some prefectures the wave was three meters high.

According to Japanese television network Nippon Television, 219 cities and towns in 21 prefectures have ordered the evacuation of 1,996,154 people. In the city of Urakawa on the island of Hokkaido, the highest level of alert was declared - level five - for more than 10 thousand residents.

Photo: Severo-Kurilsk, brick kilns destroyed due to the earthquake, July 30, 2025. Sergey Lakomov

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