In the summer of 2025, a massive 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. While this is not one of the five largest earthquakes ever recorded, it is still impressively powerful. That earthquake triggered a tsunami that spread 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 biggest that the satellite has picked up to date. 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 the tsunami waves changed as they traveled, giving scientists an in-depth model from which to learn.
Research into this event was published in The Seismic Record in November 2025. The publication highlights how dangerous megaquakes can be, and shows how satellites like SWOT are transforming scientists’ ability to understand, track and predict tsunamis.
Read more: What’s Happening On Earth Now Cannot Be Explained By Climate Models
Details of how the 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 a rare glimpse into events that happen in the ocean that humans may not be in sight to see, like this record-breaking wave. To figure out exactly 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 seabed that can detect changes in water pressure. It then sends that data to surface buoys and satellites in near real time. When the Kamchatka earthquake occurred, several of these stations immediately switched to high alert mode, and caught the tsunami as it moved away from the source.
The research team focused on the closest sensors, filtering out the normal ocean tides so they could work backwards and estimate how the seabed actually changed during the earthquake. At the same time, SWOT passed over the region and recorded a 75-mile-wide strip of the ocean surface, capturing the shape and movement of the tsunami from space in high resolution. The data processing allowed the scientists to clearly see the tsunami waves and how they spread and disperse despite how fast the tsunami was moving.
What does this mean for tsunami science
Tsunami Danger Zone Entry warning sign – Smith Collection/gado/Getty Images
Earthquakes and their resulting tsunamis can be even more dangerous than we thought, and this data offers key insights to help us learn and prepare for these events. What made this event even more interesting is that its data could be compared to a 9.0 earthquake in the exact same area that occurred in 1952 involving the same fault zone.
When comparing the two earthquakes, the scientists deduced that the 1952 earthquake did not release all the stress built up in the fault, which led to this last earthquake. Since these earthquakes occurred 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 being closer to the seabed and the newer one deeper underground, and how this would impact the size of the tsunami on the ocean surface. Although both prompted evacuations, the 2025 tsunami did not cause the damage that the 1952 one did.
The SWOT satellite also shows that it can revolutionize the real-world response to tsunami emergencies as it can provide fast data. The underwater buoy system that works together with the satellite has shown reliability in tracking tsunami waves. Scientists are now looking into the future of how this system could work with coastal warning systems and help the public respond safely to giant tsunamis.
Did you enjoy this article? Sign up for BGR’s free newsletter and add us as a preferred search source for the latest technology and entertainment, along with tips and advice you actually use.
Read the original article on BGR.