In the summer of 2025, a powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Although it is not one of the five largest earthquakes ever recorded, it is still impressively powerful. That earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean, and NASA’s new SWOT satellite captured the monster wave in detail.
The SWOT satellite, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography, was recently launched in 2022. This earthquake is the largest ever recorded. Using data from it and deep-ocean tsunami buoys, researchers were able to map the earthquake’s rupture zone, which stretched about 250 miles and raised parts of the seafloor up to 13 feet. The satellite was able to capture how tsunami waves changed as they traveled, giving scientists an in-depth model to study.
Research on this event was published in The Seismic Record in November 2025. The publication highlights how dangerous large earthquakes can be and how satellites like SWOT are changing scientists’ ability to understand, track and predict tsunamis.
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Description of how a giant tsunami was observed
SWOT satellite imagery of the 2025 tsunami – BEST-BACKGROUNDS/Shutterstock
Satellites have transformed the way we study our planet and give us rare glimpses into events in the ocean that humans may not be able to witness, such as this record-breaking wave. To find out how the 2025 Kamchatka tsunami formed and spread, scientists combined data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Tsunami Warning System and NASA’s SWOT satellite.
The NOAA system, known as DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis), uses sensors anchored to the ocean floor that can detect changes in water pressure. This data is then transmitted to surface buoys and satellites in near real time. When the Kamchatka earthquake hit, many of these stations immediately switched to high-alert mode, capturing the tsunami as it moved away from the source.
The research team focused on nearby sensors, filtering out normal ocean tides so they could work backwards and estimate how the seafloor actually moved during the earthquake. At the same time, SWOT traversed the area and recorded a 75-mile-wide strip of ocean surface, capturing the tsunami’s size and speed from space in high resolution. Processing the data allowed scientists to clearly see the tsunami waves and how they propagated and spread, no matter how quickly the tsunami moved.
What this means for tsunami science
Warning sign for entering tsunami zone – Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Earthquakes and resulting tsunamis can be more dangerous than we think, and this data provides key insights to help us learn and prepare for these events. What makes this event even more interesting is that its data can be compared to a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred in 1952.
Comparing the two earthquakes, scientists speculated that the 1952 earthquake did not release all the stress built up on the fault, causing this latest earthquake to occur. Because these earthquakes are so close together, it challenges long-standing hazard models that expect large earthquakes to be separated by hundreds of years. The scientists were also able to analyze where the two earthquakes occurred, with the older one near the sea floor and the newer one deeper underground, and how that affected the size of the tsunami at sea level. Although both prompted evacuations, the 2025 tsunami did not cause the damage of 1952.
The SWOT satellite also shows that it can revolutionize the real-world response to tsunami emergencies because it can provide data rapidly. Underwater buoy systems working in conjunction with satellites have proven reliable in tracking tsunami waves. Scientists are now looking ahead to how the system could work with coastal warning systems and help the public respond safely to giant tsunamis.
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