Old clips misrepresented online after Russian mega-quake

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia's sparsely populated Far East in late July, triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean. But a video compilation of giant waves supposedly depicting the aftermath of the tremor features old and unrelated footage.

"Tsunami wave that happened to Russia today," says the Indonesian-language text on a Facebook video shared July 30, 2025.

The compilation of six clips depicting huge waves crashing through buildings has been watched more than 750,000 times.

Similar posts also surfaced in multiple other languages including Hindi, English, Tagalog, Spanish and French hours after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula (archived link).

The quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, prompted evacuations and tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific coast.

Russian state television aired footage of a tsunami wave sweeping through Severo-Kurilsk, a coastal town on an island close to Japan, carrying buildings and debris into the sea.

However, the videos in the compilation have been online for years and are unrelated to the recent tremor.

Turkey storm

A reverse image search of keyframes found the first clip shared on X on November 27, 2023. Its caption says it was taken during a storm in Turkey's northeastern Giresun province (archived link).

A subsequent keyword search on Google surfaced an X post with the same visuals from Turkey's Anadolu Agency, which identified its location as a street near a bus terminal in Tirebolu town (archived link).

The location is visible on Google Maps street imagery near a Tirebolu bus station (archived link).

A separate keyword search on X found the second clip uploaded on November 28, 2023 (archived link). Its caption says it shows a scene from when waves hit a town in Giresun.

Google Maps street imagery along the coastal road shows the same distinct street lamps in the video (archived link).

Sochi waves

Further reverse image searches traced the third clip to a November 27, 2023 X post about powerful waves hitting Russia's Sochi city, located on the shore of the Black Sea (archived link).

AFP reported that at least 13 people were killed after a powerful hurricane dubbed the "storm of the century" hit parts of Russia, Ukraine and Moldova at the time (archived link).

Meanwhile, the fourth clip was featured in a Russian article on the same day about the impact of the storm, including in Sochi (archived link).

The sixth clip also depicts the same storm and was filmed in Sochi, Russia. It was earlier shared in an X post on November 27, 2023 (archived link).

The buildings seen in the third, fourth and sixth clips, as well as the playground in front, correspond to a photo posted on travel platform Agoda depicting an apartment in Sochi along the Black Sea coast (archived here and here).

Crimea visuals

Finally, the fifth clip was traced to an X post about the impact of the "storm of the century" in Crimea (archived link).

A logo seen at the top right corner of the post says "@chp_crimea", a Telegram group which posts Crimea-related events.

A search on the Telegram account found the video was uploaded on November 26, 2025 (archived link).

Its caption indicates the video was filmed at the Mriya Resort and Spa (archived link).

AFP was able to confirm the location of the clip by matching it with pictures of the resort geotagged on Google Maps (archived link).

AFP has debunked other false claims related to the July 2025 earthquake here and here.