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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Phoebe Weston

Thursday briefing: How ​global ​preparedness ​prevented a ​tsunami ​tragedy

A still image taken from a handout video provided by the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences shows a flooded area in Severo-Kurilsk, Sakhalin Region, Russia, 30 July 2025.
A flooded area in Severo-Kurilsk, Sakhalin Region, Russia after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake. Photograph: GC RAS/EPA

Good morning. Yesterday one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded hit a sparsely populated region in far east Russia.

It triggered a tsunami that started crossing the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour. What followed was a race against time – early warning systems went into alert mode as waves fanned out towards the coastlines of Japan, Hawaii and the US west coast.

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