Overview

• The United States Geological Survey confirmed an 8.8-magnitude undersea earthquake struck 147 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 74 km, marking the sixth-largest quake on record.
• Tsunami waves topping 9.8 ft flooded the fishing port of Severokurilsk, prompting a state of emergency on the Kuril Islands and causing widespread power outages.
• Japan’s Hokkaido coast received tsunami alerts and saw minor inundations as authorities monitored sea-level surges along northern shorelines.
• Social media users reignited interest in Ryo Tatsuki’s 1999 manga prophecy of a “July disaster,” linking her July 5 forecast to the seismic event despite the date mismatch.
• Seismologists and the Japan Meteorological Agency reiterated that precise earthquake prediction is scientifically impossible and reject any causal connection to the manga prediction.