An earthquake at a depth of 35 km with a magnitude of 8.8 (USGS) on 29 July 2025 23:24 (UTC) offshore Kamchatka, Russian Federation, resulted in a TSUNAMI THREAT MESSAGE issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS), 10 minutes after the event indicating the possibility of hazardous tsunami waves (based on magnitude 8.0 and depth of 74 km) for coasts located in Russia and Japan within 300 km of the earthquake epicentre.

Following consultations with the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) and the PTWS Steering Committee, it has been agreed that the recent event provides us with an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the system. This will enable Member States of the ICG/PTWS to identify those components which worked properly and, most importantly, what components did not work in an appropriate manner and require further attention. The Kamchatka Tsunami Post-Event Assessment (PEA) Questionnaire was distributed on 8 August through IOC Circular Letter 3052. 

In parallel and to share experiences ITIC is organising in cooperation with the IOC Secretariat this Post Event Briefing through a webinar, on 13th August 2025 at 22:00 UTC (90 minutes).  The brief will focus on the PTWS’s international and national tsunami warning and emergency response to this event. The PTWC, NWPTAC and Pacific Countries will share their responses. This will be followed by an open discussion aimed at answering country questions, and identifying priority recommendations needed to improve the PTWS and national responses.