When a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck offshore of the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia on July 29, tsunami warnings quickly followed. The quake is tied with two other historic temblors to be the sixth largest ever recorded, sparking fears of devastating waves like the ones that followed the 2011 Tohoku temblor in Japan and the 2004 Indian Ocean quake.
But so far, the tsunami waves have been nowhere near as catastrophic.
Multiple factors can influence how tsunamis manifest on distant shores, from the geology of the initial quake to the shape of the coastline. Here’s what we know so far about the Russia megaquake and why the resulting tsunamis