An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 on the Richter scale hit the Kamchatka peninsula in the far east of Russia on Wednesday. This is the strongest earthquake in Russia in the last 70 years, reports IPN citing The Moscow Times.
The earthquake triggered a tsunami of up to four meters, which damaged buildings, and the population received evacuation warnings in the area and most of the east coast of Japan. The epicenter of the earthquake was located 149 kilometers from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and 361 kilometers from Severo-Kurilsk.
The shift has extended at least 200 kilometers southwest, along the axis of the deep marine trench. After the main earthquake, another 30 noticeable earthquakes were recorded, with an intensity of 2-5 points. Aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 7.5 degrees will continue for at least a month, warned the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At the same time, a tsunami threat was announced.
The local authorities have mentioned that several people were injured, without specifying their number. According to the Russian Minister of Health, Oleg Melnikov, the condition of all patients is satisfactory.
The earthquake was the strongest since the one that occurred in the Tohoku region, Japan, in 2011. At that time, the earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1 on the Richter scale and triggered a massive tsunami and disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. American geologists claim that Wednesday’s earthquake would be the sixth largest earthquake recorded worldwide since 1900.
The Kamchatka Peninsula and the far east of Russia are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region, prone to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
