A powerful earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka with magnitude 8.7 could be caused by increased solar activity. This was announced by the director of the Baikal branch of the Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences Elena Kobeleva. According to her, technogenic reasons are unlikely – in the region there are no large developments or reservoirs that can provoke such underground shocks.
Experts note the growth of seismic activity in different regions of the world, including recent earthquakes in Turkey and Kazakhstan. Kobeleva explained that the processes inside the Earth often depend on solar activity, including magnetic storms and flashes in the sun.
The earthquake occurred in the Avachinsky Gulf at a depth of 17 km. It was followed by a series of aphtershoks with magnitude 5. As a result, buildings were injured, including a kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The wave of tsunami has reached Japan with a height of 30 cm, and in the Sakhalin region the port of North-Kurilsk was flooded.
This is the strongest earthquake in Kamchatka since 1952.
