Kamchatka [Russia], November 5 (ANI): An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck off the east coast of Kamchatka, the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said on Wednesday.
According to the NCS, the earthquake occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km, making it susceptible to aftershocks. In a post on X, the NCS stated, “EQ of M: 6.1, On: 05/11/2025 04:58:58 IST, Lat: 52.37 N, Long: 159.94 E, Depth: 25 Km, Location: Off East Coast of Kamchatka.”
Earlier on Tuesday, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 rocked the same region at a shallow depth of 10 km. In a post on X, the NCS said, “EQ of M: 6.0, On: 04/11/2025 09:15:09 IST, Lat: 52.43 N, Long: 160.02 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Off East Coast of Kamchatka.”
Shallow earthquakes are typically more dangerous than deeper ones due to their greater energy release near the Earth’s surface, causing stronger ground shaking and higher risks of structural damage and casualties. In contrast, deeper quakes tend to lose more energy before reaching the surface.
The Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia is one of the world’s most seismically active regions, located at the junction of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The Alaska-Aleutian subduction system, which extends across this area, is among the most earthquake-prone globally, producing more magnitude 8 and higher quakes in the past century than any other region. Many of these events, as well as related coastal and submarine landslides, have generated tsunamis.
The region also contains more than 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields, accounting for over three-quarters of all US volcanoes that have erupted in the last two centuries. The southern part of Kamchatka lies above a convergent plate boundary where the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the Okhotsk microplate along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, with a convergence rate of about 86 millimeters per year.
Earthquakes in this area are caused by ruptures along the megathrust boundary between the two plates, as well as within the descending Pacific Plate and the overriding Okhotsk Plate. The northern part of the peninsula lies farther from these convergent boundaries but sits across a zone dividing two blocks within the North American Plate—the Kolyma-Chukotka and Bering Sea microplates—where active shortening and right-lateral strike-slip motion occur along large southwest-northeast trending faults. (ANI)
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