Kuril Islands hit by two earthquakes in Pacific

Two earthquakes occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Kuril Islands, Elena Semenova, head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic station, said.

The tremors were recorded overnight on Friday, December 19. The first quake registered a magnitude of 4.9, followed by a 4.6 magnitude event, both considered noticeable by seismologists, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media.

“Their epicentres were located 78 and 139 kilometres southeast of Malokurilskoye village on Shikotan Island,” Semenova said. She noted that both earthquakes could be felt on Shikotan at a strength of 2–3 points. No casualties or damage have been reported, and no tsunami warning was issued.

A day earlier, a strong earthquake struck near the eastern coast of Kamchatka, with a magnitude of 6.6. Its epicentre was 99 kilometres southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 41 kilometres. No information on casualties or infrastructure damage has been confirmed.

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29-30, 2025, triggering widespread tsunami warnings across the Pacific and prompting rapid alerts in countries from Russia and Japan to the Americas.

Seismological agencies described the July event as the strongest earthquake in the Kamchatka region since 1952 and one of the largest worldwide in recent decades, generating tsunami waves and numerous significant aftershocks.

The quake’s impact was observed across the Pacific, with waves reaching parts of Japan and Hawaii and tsunami warnings activated along wide coastal regions. Data from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) indicate that seismic waves were recorded globally, reflecting the enormous energy released by the event.

By Jeyhun Aghazada