5.6 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Near Kuril Islands - Russian Geophysical Service

The so-called Kuril-Kamchatka Arc and extends some 2,100 km from Hokkaido, Japan along the Kuril Islands and the Pacific coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, is one of the most seismically active regions in the world also known as the Ring of Fire.

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake was registered in the Sea of Okhotsk near Russia’s Kuril Islands, the regional branch of the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GS RAS) said on Saturday.

“The 5.6 magnitude earthquake was registered at 23:58 local time [12:58 GMT] near the Kuril Islands. The epicentre of tremors was located … 124 kilometres [87 miles] east of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, at the depth of 51kilometres,” head of the seismological station Yelena Semenova said.

The head of the station added that residents of the Malokurilskoye village on the island of Shikotan had felt the 3.0 magnitude tremors.

The Kuril Islands are located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire, which is regularly affected by powerful earthquakes. On November 5, 1952, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that devastated the town of Severo-Kurilsk, leaving more than 2,300 people killed.