Written by Dr. Arthur Viterito Ph.D. on September 9, 2025. Republished with permission from Arthur Viterito.

The amount of seismic activity around the Kamchatka peninsula has been extraordinarily high the past few months, and climate alarmists deliberately ignore it

This is noteworthy because the area has become a geothermal “hotspot” driving significant warming of the Kuroshio Current, the Pacific’s equivalent to the Gulf Stream.

The “culprit” here is the Eastern Volcanic Front, a fore arc basin off Kamchatka’s east coast.

Figure 1. Kamchatka reference map. Source: https://www.freeworldmaps.net/russia/kamchatka/

According to Google Gemini:

“There are indeed underwater volcanoes off the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia. … The ongoing subduction along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench is responsible for intense volcanism, both on land and beneath the ocean.

As the Pacific Plate dives beneath the other plates, melting occurs, forming magma that can erupt through the ocean floor, creating underwater volcanoes or seamounts. The underwater volcanoes offshore of Kamchatka are part of this larger volcanic system.”

As Figure 2 shows, there has been a tremendous amount of underwater seismic activity for the region from July 13 through August 12, 2025. During that time, there have been 2,024 seismic events, the majority of which are associated with underwater magma displacement.

Keep in mind, these magmas can reach temperatures as high as 400 degrees C.

Figure 2. Seismic events, Mw >=3, July 13 – August 12, 2025. Source: https://ds.iris.edu/wilber3/find_event

This has led to anomalously high sea surface temperatures in the area, warming the overlying ocean 4 to 5 degrees Celsius above average. This high-temperature water then moves southward via the Kamchatka Current (Figure 3).

The Kamchatka Current subsequently converges with the Kuroshio Current off the east coast of Japan (boxed area, Figure 3), providing additional warmth to the Kuroshio.

Figure 3. Kamchatka and Kurishio currents. Source: Wikidata. Català: Corrent de Kamtxatka amb els principals corrents relacionats amb ell dins del sistema de l’Oceà Pacífic Nord.3 November 2018.

The higher temperatures of the Kamchatka/Kuroshio confluence are clearly illustrated in the August 12, 2025 sea-surface temperature anomaly map (Figure 4).

As depicted, the excess heat off the Kamchatka coast has been transported southward and then eastward, yielding anomalously high temperatures across the entire width of the northern Pacific Ocean.

Figure 4. Sea surface temperature anomaly, 8/12/2025. Source: Climate Reanalyzer (8/12/2025). [SST Anomaly]. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. Retrieved [8/15/2025], from https://climatereanalyzer.org/

Contrast this with the seismic map from March 6 through April 5, 2025 (Figure 4). For that period, there were just 13 seismic events off the Kamchatka coast.

Figure 5 Seismic events, Mw >=3, March 6, 2025 – April 5, 2025. Source: https://ds.iris.edu/wilber3/find_event

By comparison, Figure 6 depicts the sea surface temperature anomalies for April 6, 2025:

Figure 6. Sea surface temperature anomaly, 4/6/2025. Source: Climate Reanalyzer (4/6/2025). [SST Anomaly]. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. Retrieved [8/15/2025], from https://climatereanalyzer.org/

The contrast between the two periods is remarkable. Clearly, the large hotspot seen in August was greatly diminished when seismic activity was substantially lower in March and April.

Similar observations to this have been made by Dr Wyss Yim of the University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Yim has documented episodic hotspots for New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, the Galapagos, and coastal Oregon over the past 15 years. Here is the link to a Tom Nelson podcast by Dr. Yim highlighting these findings – Wyss Yim: Volcanic eruptions and climate variability | Tom Nelson Pod #177 – YouTube

It’s about time the climate community started recognizing the importance of geothermal inputs into the global climate system.

This critically important driver has been willfully ignored by climate researchers for far too long.