A third tsunami observed by Swot, due to Kamchatka earthquake

On July 30, 2025, a major earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck the Kamchatka Peninsulain Russia, which is located along the Pacific coast of the country. This seismic event generated a tsunami wave across the Pacific Ocean.
A tsunami warning was issued for the entire region, and the network of dedicated buoys successfully alerted the various nations that could be affected, thereby preventing any loss of life. Over an 1 hour after the event, the satellite Swot overflew the area. This is the third such event recorded (see [Roger et al., 2025] for the first, located in South Pacific, Tsunami waves observed by Swot for the second time for the second, South of America, in the Atlantic Ocean). This kind of observation is not used for immediate warnings, but it rather serves to enhance the tsunami wave propagation models, to improve future forecasts. The tsunami simulation in the above figure was generated by implementing the shallow water equations in GeoClaw (Clawpack Development Team, 2020), using the USGS inversion model of the M8.8 Kamchatka rupture and the high-resolution bathymetry data from GEBCO 2024 (Angel Ruiz-Angulo and Charly de Marez at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, and Diego Melgar at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon). The numerical model has been extensively validated against multiple historical tsunami events and possible scenarios. However, this is the first time that the model has been successfully validated against Swot observations. Compared with classical nadir altimetry, Swot has the huge advantage of observing in 2D, allowing to produce a 2D map depicting the amplitude of the tsunami wave front over the North Pacific Ocean.