That is an extremely active plate margin both with earthquakes and related volcanos.
Posted on 01/30/2016 9:18:08 AM PST by JimSEA
The January 30, 2016 M 7.2 earthquake beneath the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia occurred as the result of oblique-normal faulting at a depth of 180 km. At the location of this earthquake, the Pacific plate is moving towards the west-northwest with respect to the North America and Eurasia plates at a rate of approximately 77 mm/yr. Note that some authors divide this region into several microplates that together define the relative motions between the larger Pacific, North America and Eurasia plates; these include the Okhotsk and Amur microplates that are respectively part of North America and Eurasia. The depth and faulting mechanism of the January 30th earthquake indicate that it ruptured a fault within the subducting Pacific lithosphere.
Earthquakes like this event, with focal depths between 70 and 300 km, are commonly termed "intermediate-depth" earthquakes. Intermediate-depth earthquakes represent deformation within subducted slabs rather than at the shallow plate interface between subducting and overriding tectonic plates. They typically cause less damage on the ground surface above their foci than is the case with similar magnitude shallow-focus earthquakes, but large intermediate-depth earthquakes may be felt at great distance from their epicenters. "Deep-focus" earthquakes, those with focal depths greater than 300 km, also occur in the subducted Pacific plate beneath Kamchatka, and this slab hosted the largest ever-recorded deep earthquake, a M 8.3 event in May 2013. The deepest reliably located earthquake in this region occurred at a depth of almost 650 km.
(Excerpt) Read more at earthquake.usgs.gov ...
Underground nuke test?
This area of Russia is seismically active. At times, maybe hyperactive.
That is an extremely active plate margin both with earthquakes and related volcanos.
I figured it was probably natural. There of course is or was the possibility that it wasn’t.
This is a wild place. If you’re into that sort of thing (I am), look on You Tube for multiple volcanic eruptions, Kamchatka. The one I’m thinking of was a helicopter flying over.
Wiki has this page about Kamchatka earthquakes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_earthquakes
I came one course away from completing a BS degree in geology. What I was most interested in was earth history (landscape evolution), fossils, and plate tectonics, as opposed to more practical (money making) fields such as petrology or hydrology.
How cool! It’s fascinating stuff. Not so much lately (LOL election year), but I follow the vulcanology blogs (Erik Klemetti, Jon Friman, Volcano Cafe, & John John John- can’t remember his last name)
Not as much out there for earthquakes- that I know of, but earthquake-report (which I don’t love, but beggars can’t be choosers).
Is this what you intended to post? Because all I saw on my end was a tiny icon. I copied the location for it to get this url.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/tectonic/images/kuril_tsum.pdf
That’s it. Odd, it came up in preview and is showing on my iPad now.
Yep. Wild. At some point, a long time ago, I googled one of the towns/ villages/ settlements that had been specifically mentioned & marveled at how someone could live with that. Vanuatu & around there would be the same way (though probably not as bad, I don’t think).
LOL I’d be a wreck. I pray for my friends & acquaintances on the West Coast all the time.
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