A tsunami was recorded at Kurile Lake in southern Kamchatka following the powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake that struck near the peninsula on Wednesday— the strongest in the region since 1952. According to the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, no one was injured.

Due to poor weather conditions, tourist presence at the lake—part of the South Kamchatka Federal Sanctuary—was minimal. Most of those on-site were reserve staff and volunteers.

"We were on the watchtower near the mouth of the Khakytsin River, one of the main sockeye salmon spawning sites where many bears gather. The tower started shaking violently. We had to descend immediately. Standing was impossible, so we sat on the ground. When we saw the water retreating from the lake, we knew we had to run inland. It’s hard to run when the ground is shaking beneath you. Thankfully, no large wave followed."

— Liana Varavskaya, State Inspector, Kronotsky Reserve

Another inspector, Stas Tarasov, reported similar events at the Ozerny station. The water first receded five meters from the shoreline and then came rushing back in a wave. According to Senior Inspector Yevgeny Dengas, this cycle repeated several times, briefly exposing spawning salmon before they were swept back into the lake by new waves.

From elevated observation points, witnesses saw water flowing from Kurile Lake across a trail into nearby Lake Domashneye. There were no reports of structural damage within the sanctuary.

Russia’s Iconic Wildlife Destination Shaken But Safe

Kurile Lake is the second-largest and deepest freshwater body on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is part of a protected area famous for its vibrant sockeye salmon runs and the large number of bears that gather to fish during the July–September spawning season. Thousands of visitors and photographers travel to this remote region every year to witness this unique natural spectacle.

This experience is made possible thanks to the strict conservation rules enforced by the reserve, ensuring the safety of wildlife and visitors alike—even during extreme natural events.

The recent quake caused seismic intensities of six to seven points in various areas, leading to tsunami alerts being issued across the Pacific, including Japan and the United States.

Kurile Lake is a caldera and crater lake in Kamchatka, Russia. It is also known as Kurilskoye Lake or Kuril Lake. It is part of the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Kamchatka which, together with the Sredinny Range, forms one of the volcanic belts of Kamchatka. These volcanoes form from the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Okhotsk Plate and the Asian Plate. Before the Kurile Lake caldera formed, the Pauzhetka caldera was active during the Pleistocene, and was the origin of the Golygin ignimbrite at 443,000 ± 8,000 years old. The Kurile Lake caldera erupted 41,500 years ago, and another small eruption occurred between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago; then in 6460–6414 BCE, a very large eruption took place, forming the present-day caldera and the Kurile Lake ignimbrite and depositing ash as far as 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) away. This eruption has a volume of 140–170 cubic kilometres (34–41 cu mi), making it a VEI-7-class eruption and one of the largest during the Holocene. Subsequently, the volcanoes Diky Greben and Ilinsky grew around the caldera; as of 2024, the most recent eruption from Ilinsky was in 1911. The caldera is filled by a lake with an area of 76 square kilometres (29 sq mi), and a maximum depth of 316 metres (1,037 ft). The largest sockeye salmon stocks in Asia live in the lake.

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Russia’s Iconic Wildlife Destination Shaken But Safe