With a tsunami hitting the coastal areas of Russia’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido and warnings ringing across Pacific Islands and US, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has ruled out any threat for India.
In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), INCOIS said: “NO TSUNAMI THREAT to India and Indian Ocean in connection with this earthquake.” It added, “Tsunami Warning Centre, @ESSO_INCOIS detected an #earthquake of M 8.7 on 30 July 2025 at 04:54 IST (29 July 2025 at 23:24 UTC) @ Off East Coast of Kamchatka (Location: 52.57 N, 160.08 E).”
The tsunami warnings came after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday. The Japan Meteorological Agency said a first tsunami wave of about 30 cm reached Nemuro on the eastern coast of Hokkaido. Damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake’s epicenter on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves of 1 to 3 meters above tide level were possible along some coastal areas of Hawaii, Chile, Japan and the Solomon Islands. Waves of more than 3 meters were possible along some coastal areas of Russia and Ecuador.
The earthquake was the strongest anywhere in the world since the March 2011 earthquake off northeast Japan that measured 9.0 magnitude and caused a massive tsunami that set off meltdowns at a Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Earlier in July, five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — struck in the sea near Kamchatka. The largest quake was at a depth of 20 kilometers and was 144 kilometers (89 miles) east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Story continues below this ad
On November 4, 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-metre waves in Hawaii.
With inputs from AP
