Tsunami Triggered by Giant Russian Quake Broke the Rules, Satellite Data Shows
Gizmodo••science
Key Points:
- On July 29, 2025, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Russia triggered a tsunami that reached the U.S. West Coast, with the SWOT satellite capturing the first high-resolution space-based track of a significant subduction zone tsunami.
- The satellite data revealed that the tsunami did not propagate as a single wave but as a complex interaction of multiple waves, challenging the long-held belief that large tsunamis are non-dispersive.
- Researchers found that tsunami models incorporating dispersive wave behavior aligned better with the satellite observations, suggesting current models may be missing important dynamics affecting wave propagation and coastal impact.
- By combining SWOT satellite data with DART buoy measurements, the team refined the earthquake’s rupture length to about
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