Why Kamchatka's magnitude 8.8 earthquake brought a smaller tsunami—and where risk may remain

On July 29, 2025, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred near the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was so powerful that it ranks as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded by modern instruments. Using this giant earthquake as a learning opportunity, researchers at Tohoku University's International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) combined multiple datasets in order to reconstruct the movement of the faults (fractures in the earth's crust). Their analysis, published in Geoscience Letters, could help us better understand the tsunami risks faced by local communities, and how to protect them.