August 17, 2024 Earthquake: Off Kamchatka, Russia

Reference #13456:

Tectonic Summary

The August 17, 2024, M7.0 earthquake east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, occurred as the result of reverse faulting at a depth of about 29 km. At the location of this earthquake, the Pacific place is moving west-northwest with respect to the North America and Eurasia plates. Some authors divide this region into several microplates that together define the relative motions between the larger Pacific, North America, and Eurasia plates; in this depiction, the Kamchatka Peninsula is located on the Okhotsk microplate, which is part of the North America plate. The earthquake’s location and sense of motion is consistent with the faulting on the subduction zone plate interface.

While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Reverse faulting events of the size of the August 17, 2024, earthquake are typically about 35 km by 20 km in size (length x width).

The Kuril-Kamchatka arc has frequent moderate-to-large earthquakes and has hosted 29 additional M 6.5+ events within 250 km of the August 17, 2024, earthquake over the preceding century. The August 17, 2024, earthquake is located roughly 40 km northeast of the 1952 M 9.0 Kamchatka earthquake, which resulted in a destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami.

Reference #13819:

An earthquake of magnitude 7 M at a depth of 29 km occurred on 17 August at 19:10 UTC (18 August 7:10 local time) in the sea at approximately 10 km south-east of the Kamchatka peninsula. The epicentre was located approximately 102 km east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City. There are no reports of any damage or casualties, neither due to the earthquake nor to the volcanic eruption.