8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russian coast is world’s largest since 2011, USGS says
The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off the far eastern coast of Russia was the largest the world’s seen since 2011, when a 9.0 magnitude one struck Japan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula was also among the world’s 10 largest earthquakes since 1990 and the largest recorded in the area since 1952, USGS said.
Police officers ask a man to evacuate an empty beach due to a tsunami warning in Fujisawa city, Kanagawa prefecture on July 30, 2025.
Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP via Getty Images
That was the year that a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the area, USGS said. Its epicenter was less than 30 kilometers, or about 18 miles, from the one that struck Wednesday. Another massive 8.4 magnitude quake struck the area in 1923.
The 8.8 magnitude earthquake followed a series of smaller quakes in the same waters over the last few days.
A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck on July 20, prompting brief warnings of potential tsunami waves on the nearby peninsula and farther across the Pacific in Hawaii.
More than 50 earthquakes measuring over 5.0 magnitude rumbled the area in the 10 days since that quake, USGS said. Another three quakes reached a magnitude of 6.6 within that period, officials said.
Lifeguards patrol next to a red and white flag used for tsunami warnings as much of coastal Japan went on alert following a 8.7 magnitude quake in the sea off eastern Russia, along Tokyo Bay in Chiba City, Chiba prefecture on July 30, 2025.
Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images
The area, which is known as the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone, is the spot were the Pacific plate slides beneath the North America plate, according to the USGS.
It’s a seismically active area that had seen, prior to the earthquake and aftershocks, about 700 quakes more intense than 5.0 magnitude since 1990, weather officials said.
More than 24 aftershocks larger than 5.0 magnitude have hit the region since the big quake, including two quakes higher than 6.0 magnitude, according to the USGS.
The 2011 quake in Japan struck off the coast of Honshu and generated a tsunami within about a half-hour, according to the USGS. That tsunami topped seawalls and eventually disabled three nuclear reactors. More than 18,000 people died.