On July 30th, a strong earthquake caused the collapse of a wall at a kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka. The head of the “Unified Geodetic Bureau” of the Russian Academy of Sciences responsible for seismic monitoring, Igor Chebrov, stated on July 31st that following the 8.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Avarcha Bay in the Kamchatka Peninsula, approximately 1000 aftershocks were detected in the region. Russian experts generally believe that this strong earthquake marks the final phase of seismic activity in the area over the past year.
According to Rossiya Semrush, Chebrov confirmed that these aftershocks ranged from the smallest measurable by instruments to about 7 on the Richter scale. It is expected that within the next few months, there will be thousands of felt aftershocks around the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The Kamchatka Volcano Natural Park announced on social media on July 31st that following the earthquake, a volcanic eruption occurred at Klyuchev volcano in the eastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, with volcanic ash reaching about 6,000 meters above the vent.
Furthermore, the Russian emergency response department confirmed on July 31st that the strong earthquake resulted in the maximum tsunami height of 5 meters hitting parts of the coastal areas of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island, displacing approximately 2,700 people to the Kuril Islands to escape the tsunami. At that time, the water accumulated in the areas hit by the tsunami had receded.
Boris Yakovlev, a senior researcher at Moscow State University’s Department of Geology, stated that Russian seismological experts generally believe that the strong earthquake on July 30th was “highly probable” the last phase of seismic activity in the Kamchatka region that has been ongoing for over a year, with no expectation of larger earthquakes happening within the year.
The 8.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the coast of Avarcha Bay in the Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30th was the strongest earthquake recorded in the region since 1952.
A powerful earthquake occurred far off the east coast of Kamchatka.