July 20, 2025 Earthquake: Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

Reference #13456:

Some buildings damaged in the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy area. A tsunami with an estimated wave height of 1.53 m was observed in Avachinskaya Guba.

Tectonic Summary

The July 20, 2025, M7.4 earthquake east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, occurred as the result of reverse faulting at a depth of about 20 km. At the location of this earthquake, the Pacific plate is moving west-northwest with respect to the North America plate at about 77 mm/yr. Note, the North American plate extends westward beyond the North American continent. The earthquake’s location and sense of motion is consistent with the faulting on the subduction zone plate interface of the Kuril-Kamchatka Arc.

While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Reverse faulting events of the size of the July 20, 2025, earthquake are typically about 60 km by 35 km in size (length x width).

The Kuril-Kamchatka arc has frequent moderate-to-large earthquakes and has hosted 29 additional M 6.5+ events within 250 km of the July 20, 2025, earthquake over the preceding century. The July 20, 2025, earthquake is located roughly 73 km northeast of the 1952 M 9.0 Kamchatka earthquake, which resulted in a destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami.