Old tsunami footage from Greenland falsely linked to July 2025 earthquake in Russia

"A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake has struck parts of Russia, causing tremors and fear among locals. Hope there's no major damage or casualties. Praying for everyone under Tsunami warning currently," reads an X post shared on July 30, 2025.  

The post shares a video showing two men running away from waves crashing onto the shore.

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Screenshot of the false X post taken on July 31, with a red X mark added by AFP

The false post surfaced as a magnitude 8.8 quake -- one of the strongest ever recorded -- struck Russia's sparsely populated Far East, generating tsunamis of up to four meters (12 feet) across the Pacific (archived link). 

More than a dozen nations -- from Japan to the United States to Ecuador -- warned citizens to stay away from coastal regions, but later said they could return after fears of a catastrophe were not realised (archived link).

Russia also lifted the alert after the quake and tsunami spared the sparsely populated far east from casualties and major damage (archived link). 

The video circulated with similar claims on Facebook and X.  

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found it was published on the YouTube channel of British video news agency Newsflare on May 10, 2021 (archived link). 

The video is titled, "Fishermen Make A Lucky Escape As Tsunami Hits In Greenland." 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post video (L) and the Newsflare video

"This video was provided by one of our content partners, Licet Studios," Newsflare spokesperson Tom Symes-Brown told AFP on July 30. "We can confirm it was filmed on June 17, 2017."

Licet Studios published the video titled "GREENLAND TSUNAMI: Fishermen Run For Their Lives - Camera 3" on their YouTube channel on April 9, 2021 (archived link). 

Authorities listed four people as missing after an earthquake sparked a tsunami off Greenland in 2017, forcing some residents to be evacuated (archived link).

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

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