In the early hours of Wednesday (July 30, 2025), a colossal 8.8-magnitude earthquake, the 6th-strongest recorded tremor, struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.
It unleashed powerful tsunami waves that threatened communities across the Pacific.
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Tsunami warnings and mass evacuations swept through eastern Russia and Japan, where waves up to 3 metres surged toward the coast.
It also disrupted travel and flights were diverted as alarms sounded across Alaska, Hawaii, and North America’s Pacific rim, underscoring the immense, transoceanic reach of tsunami hazards.
It’s a stark reminder: natural cataclysms have repeatedly rewritten coastal histories.
The full extent of the damage of the Kamchatka earthquake and tsunami is yet unknown.
Historically, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami remains the deadliest in modern recorded history with around 230,000 deaths and multibillion-dollar damages, caused by a massive 9.1 magnitude undersea earthquake near Sumatra.
Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku disaster also led to unimaginable loss and a nuclear crisis, these seismic sea waves remain among nature’s most lethal threats.
Top 10 tsunamis of the last 500 years
Here are 10 of the biggest tsunamis in the last 500 years, ranked by combined impact on life (deaths) and property (economic damage):