A magnitude 7 earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula region in Russia’s Far East at approximately 3:35 pm local time.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the earthquake occurred at a depth of 140 km (86.99 miles), with its epicentre about 123 km south-west of Vilyuchinsk, reports NDTV.
No tsunami alert was issued immediately after the quake. The US National Tsunami Warning Center confirmed that there was no tsunami danger following the tremors. Further details about casualties or structural damage were not immediately available.
In a related development, Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) mistakenly issued an early warning estimating the earthquake’s magnitude at 9.9 and forecasting strong shaking across much of the country. However, data cited by BNO News showed that the agency’s actual reading was magnitude 6.9.
If accurate, the estimated magnitude of 9.9 would have made the earthquake the strongest ever recorded, surpassing the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, which remains the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in history, at magnitude 9.5.
The Kamchatka Peninsula lies on the Ring of Fire, a tectonic belt surrounding much of the Pacific Ocean that is a hotspot for seismic activity.
In July last year, a magnitude 8.8 megaquake off the region’s coast triggered a tsunami that swept part of a coastal village into the sea.
