31-07-2025
After Kamchatka quake, Japan warns reflected tsunami could pack extra punch
Following the massive earthquake that struck near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday morning, Japan's Meteorological Agency says tsunami waves arriving after the first one could be more powerful -- partly due to the region's unique undersea topography.
The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 8.8, hit near the peninsula at around 11:25 a.m., local time. Tsunami waves have been observed across a broad area of Japan's Pacific coast.
The agency says an undersea mountain range known as the Emperor Seamount Chain lies to the east of the peninsula, stretching about 2,000 kilometers from south to north. The seamounts are located at a depth of around 6,000 meters, with some rising more than 4,000 or 5,000 meters above the seafloor.
The agency suggests that this topography could cause tsunami waves to be reflected, making them higher as they head toward the Japanese archipelago.
In the 2006 earthquake that occurred off the eastern part of the Kuril Islands -- south of Wednesday's quake epicenter -- the agency found that reflected tsunami waves caused by local topography were higher than the initial tsunami. Those higher waves reached the coast of western Japan.
