Seismic unrest continues in Russian Far East with Kuril Islands tremor

A moderate earthquake was recorded near the Kuril Islands in Russia’s Sakhalin region, the seismological branch of the Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported.

According to the agency, the quake struck at 12:39 p.m. local time, with a magnitude of 4.8. The epicentre was located 35 kilometres southeast of Severo-Kurilsk, at a depth of 72 kilometres. Residents of Paramushir Island reported feeling the tremors at an intensity of 3 to 4 points on the local scale.

This latest quake follows a far more powerful seismic event on July 30, when an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck near the Kamchatka Peninsula — the most powerful to hit the region in 70 years and one of the strongest globally since the devastating 9.0-magnitude quake that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011.

The July 30 quake, which occurred 150 kilometres off the coast near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 47 kilometres in the Pacific Ocean, caused significant damage onshore. Cracks appeared in the walls of residential buildings, a kindergarten wall collapsed, and a hospital sustained structural damage. Several individuals were injured in the aftermath, and authorities warned of possible aftershocks reaching up to magnitude 7.5 in the following days.

A tsunami warning was issued for a wide area, including Kamchatka, Japan, the United States, Haiti, California, Chile, and Peru. Waves reaching 3 to 4 meters in height struck the Kamchatka coastline, inundating low-lying coastal areas. In Japan, the tsunami's effects were visibly marked by the stranding of four whales along the shore.

In the wake of the seismic unrest, volcanic activity has intensified. Scientists believe that the massive quake and the subsequent series of more than 200 aftershocks may have triggered the renewed eruption of Klyuchevskaya Sopka — one of Eurasia’s most active volcanoes — further underlining the growing instability in the region.