Seismic activity continues in Kamchatka as 6.3 quake recorded

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula, where tremors were felt distinctly across the region.

The Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported to TASS: “There was an earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale. It was felt in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; other details are being clarified.”

According to seismological data, the quake occurred 123 kilometres from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 46.8 kilometres.

This latest seismic event follows another powerful earthquake that struck the peninsula on July 30. That quake, with a magnitude of 8.7, was the strongest recorded in Kamchatka since 1952. Its epicentre was located 360 kilometres northeast of Severo-Kurilsk in the Pacific Ocean, at a depth of 17 kilometres.

The July quake was acutely felt in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where tremors reached 7–8 on the Richter scale, while in the Sakhalin region the intensity registered at 5–6. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that affected not only Kamchatka and Sakhalin but also several other countries across the Pacific.

The seismic shift caused significant ground displacement on the peninsula, with some areas in the south moving southeast by nearly two meters.

In its aftermath, Kamchatka experienced heightened volcanic activity. On August 3, the Krasheninnikov volcano erupted for the first time in 600 years, an event so powerful it was visible from space. Four days later, on August 7, ash emissions from Klyuchevskaya Sopka rose to a height of 12 kilometres, while streams of molten lava cascaded down its slopes.

Local volcanologists report that volcanic activity in the region remains at moderate levels.

By Tamilla Hasanova