A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. “It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes,” said Yaroslav. Aftershocks up to magnitude 7.5 are expected over the coming weeks. Tsunami warnings were issued for Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Japan, Alaska, California and Oregon.
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY JULY 30: A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula — the strongest in the region since 1952. Intense shaking caused damage across the area, including a collapsed wall at a kindergarten (luckily, no injuries reported).
The shallow tremor off the Kamchatka Peninsula damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard – devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii.
Aftershocks up to magnitude 7.5 are expected over the coming weeks. Tsunami warnings were issued for Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Japan, Alaska, California, and Oregon, with the first waves already hitting Severo-Kurilsk. Watch raw footage capturing the terrifying moment the earthquake shook buildings and triggered alarms.
By Wednesday evening, Japan and Hawaii had downgraded their tsunami warnings, but authorities in French Polynesia warned residents of several of the remote Marquesas Islands to move to higher ground, and follow official instructions. Parts of French Polynesia were told to brace for waves as high as 4 metres on Wednesday.
“Our armed forces in French Polynesia are on alert as a precautionary measure, to be ready to assist our fellow citizens and state services in potential search and rescue operations or medical evacuations,” French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on the social media platform X.
“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
– “It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes,” said Yaroslav, 25, in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
