What was claimed
A video shows a “massive earthquake” triggering a tsunami which took “thousands of lives”.
Our verdict
This video shows a tsunami caused by a landslide in Greenland in 2017, which killed four people. It is not linked to the current tsunami warnings following an earthquake off Russia.
A video circulating online amid major evacuations across the Pacific is claimed to show a tsunami which has taken “thousands of lives”. But this is misleading.
The footage has been shared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) following an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, which has triggered evacuations of almost two million people across Japan. Warnings are also in place in other countries including Hawaii, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru and China.
A caption shared with the video says: “Massive Earthquake triggers Tsunami taking thousands of lives in seconds with little to no warning.”
Although it doesn’t specifically mention the earthquake off Russia, the post was shared in the hours following the first reports early this morning.
The same video is also being shared on X and Facebook with the claim that it shows “Insane tsunami footage out of Russia”.
But this footage is not current, or related to the earthquake in Russia or the subsequent tsunami warnings.
It actually shows a tsunami which occurred on the west coast of Greenland in 2017, triggered by a landslide.
A longer and high quality version was uploaded to YouTube by Newsflare, a video wire service, with the title “Fishermen Make A Lucky Escape As Tsunami Hits In Greenland”.
The description with the video also says that it depicts the 2017 tsunami which hit the settlement of Nuugaatsiaq on 17 June.
However, this tsunami did not kill “thousands”, as stated in the social media posts. Four people were killed, and nine others were injured.
The same footage has been wrongly shared in the wake of other earthquakes before.
Misleading content can spread quickly during unfolding global events. Before sharing videos and images you see online, first consider whether they come from a trustworthy and verifiable source—our toolkit can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because this video is not of a recent tsunami but footage from 2017 that is circulating amid evacuations and major tsunami warnings across the Pacific in July 2025.
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