Letty Mortensen and Fraser Dovell were in Kamchatka, Russia’s remote and volatile northeast, back in 2022—the same region rocked by Wednesday’s magnitude 8.7 earthquake. Their film, Kamchatka, documented a bold cold-water expedition through the peninsula’s volcano-lined coastline, where they uncovered world-class surf in one of the planet’s most isolated and geologically active regions. What was once an untapped frontier for waves is now the epicenter of seismic headlines. Photo by Guy Williment.

Massive 8.7 Magnitude Earthquake Off Russia Triggers Widespread Tsunami Alerts

Evacuation orders in place for parts of Hawaii, Japan and Pacific Islands.

news // Jul 30, 2025

Words by Ethan Davis

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A powerful earthquake struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula early Wednesday morning, prompting tsunami warnings across multiple countries in the Pacific. The quake, initially recorded as magnitude 8.0, has since been upgraded to 8.7 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

“They’re telling us get to higher ground and that we could possibly see a tidal change of 10 feet which would be huge for us,” Hawaiian surfer and filmmaker Kuio Young told Stab. This is on a stretch of coast where beachfront homes have already been threatened by storms and coastal erosion.

The WSL, currently running the US Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, has notified competitors that tomorrow’s event is delayed, pending the condition of the beach, the contest site, and whether the city reopens beach access.

“We are seeing slow sea level rise, but the problem is that it’s accelerating. It used to be a millimeter a year–now it’s three millimeters a year. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but instead of eight inches over the next hundred years, we are going to see three to six feet (ninety to one-hundred eighty cm) over the next hundred years,” Chad Nelson, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation told *Stab* previously.

Since then several groups have taken action to address the problem afflicting North Shore residents. The North Shore Coastal Resilience Working Group was launched by the collaborative efforts of the Surfrider Foundation, Surfrider’s Oʻahu Chapter, the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College, and consulting firm SSFM International. The group includes a broad group of stakeholders —including scientists, agencies in charge of enforcing development rules, and community members who are actively facing the challenges posed by erosion.

The epicenter of the quake was located approximately 125 kilometers southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 people on the Avacha Bay coastline. The quake struck at a shallow depth of 19.3 kilometers, intensifying the potential for tsunami activity.

Interestingly, Kamchatcka is where Fraser Dovell, Letty Mortensen, Spencer Frost and Guy Williment filmed their surf film by the same name Kamchatcka in. See our feature, What’s It Like To Fly Into Russia On Invasion Day For A Surf Trip?.

Letty described the Kamchatcka region as, “old and cold, and they’ve got like 150 volcanoes around the city. It’s really beautiful. You’ll see old, rundown Soviet buildings and then a lot of newer, nicer buildings as well. The people are beautiful, man. We met the surf community there and they were so excited to have us and show us Kamchatka, they love their home.“

The *Kamchatka* squad and their surf-exploring chopper. Photo by Guy Williment.

Tsunami alerts were swiftly issued for Russia, Japan, Hawaii, the US mainland (California, Oregon and Washington) and several Pacific islands. In Kamchatka, waves as high as 3 to 4 meters were recorded, according to Russian reports.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings along its eastern Pacific coast, from Hokkaido down to Wakayama Prefecture, urging immediate evacuations. Waves between 1 to 3 meters were expected, with authorities warning that tsunamis could strike repeatedly. “Do not enter the sea or approach the coast until the warning is lifted,” the agency said in a statement.

In Hawaii, residents received emergency alerts urging them to move to higher ground, with projected wave heights of 1 to 3 meters. Tsunami advisories were also issued for parts of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, Guam, and other U.S. territories including Midway Island, Johnston Atoll, and Palmyra Island.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, countries such as Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Philippines were warned to expect tsunami waves ranging from 0.3 to 1 meter.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned that, based on preliminary data, “widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible.” Evacuations are underway in several regions as authorities monitor the situation closely.

More to come.