Earthquakes in Russia have occasionally been damaging and deadly.
Earthquakes in Russia have occasionally been damaging and deadly.
Some of the largest Russian earthquakes since the latter half of the 20th century are the 1958/1963 and 2006/2007 earthquakes in the Kuril Islands near Japan, as well as the 1952/1959 earthquakes in the Kamchatka Peninsula, all of which were ≥ 8.0 M. See also the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
| Date | Region | Mag. | MMI | Deaths | Injuries | Total damage / notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-07-05 | Kemerovo | 4.4 Mw | 2 | 2 | Deaths due to rockfalls in a mine | [1] [2] [3] | |
| 2020-03-25 | Kuril Islands | 7.5 Mw | V | 1 | Tsunami | [4] [5] | |
| 2017-07-17 | Kamchatka | 7.8 Mw | VII | ||||
| 2013-05-24 | Okhotsk Sea | 8.3 Mw | V | Significant in seismology | |||
| 2011-12-27 | Tuva | 6.6 Mw | VI | Buildings damaged | [6] | ||
| 2011-10-14 | Amur | 6.0 Mw | VII | Minor damage/Power outages | [7] [8] | ||
| 2008-10-11 | North Caucasus | 5.8 Mw | VIII | 13 | 116 | ||
| 2008-08-27 | Lake Baikal | 6.3 Mw | VIII | Minor damage | [9] | ||
| 2007-08-02 | Tatar Strait | 6.2 Mw | VIII | 2 | 12 | Tsunami | [10] |
| 2007-01-13 | Kuril Islands | 8.1 Mw | VI | Tsunami | |||
| 2006-11-15 | Kuril Islands | 8.3 Mw | IV | 1 | Tsunami | ||
| 2006-04-21 | Kamchatka | 7.6 Mw | X | 40 | $55 million | ||
| 2004-09-21 | Kaliningrad | 4.8 Mw | VI | 3 | 17 buildings damaged / Rare event | [11] | |
| 2003-09-27 | Altai Republic | 7.3 Mw | X | 3 | 5 | $10.6–33 million | |
| 2000-08-04 | Sakhalin | 6.8 Mw | VI | 8 | 19,100 displaced | [12] | |
| 1997-12-05 | Kamchatka | 7.7 Mw | VII | ||||
| 1995-05-27 | Sakhalin | 7.0 Ms | IX | 1,989 | 750 | $64.1–300 million | |
| 1994-10-04 | Kuril Islands | 8.3 Mw | 12 | 1000+ | Tsunami | ||
| 1970-05-14 | North Caucasus | 6.7 Mw | VII | 31 | 1,000+ | [13] | |
| 1963-10-20 | Kuril Islands | 7.8 Mw | Tsunami | ||||
| 1963-10-13 | Kuril Islands | 8.5 Mw | IX | Tsunami | |||
| 1959-05-04 | Kamchatka | 8.0 Ms | VIII | 1 | 13 | Tsunami | |
| 1958-11-06 | Kuril Islands | 8.3 Mw | X | Tsunami | [14] | ||
| 1952-11-05 | Kamchatka | 9.0 Mw | XI | 2,336 | Earthquake+Tsunami | ||
| 1946-11-02 | Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan | 7.6 Mw | X | Unknown | Severe damage | ||
| 1923-04-13 | Kamchatka | 6.8 Mw | X | 18 | Tsunami | [15] [16] | |
| 1923-02-03 | Kamchatka | 8.4 Ms | XI | 3 | |||
| 1918-09-07 | Kuril Islands | 8.1 Mw | 23 | 17 | Tsunami | [17] | |
| 1911-01-03 | Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan | 7.7 Mw | X | 452 | Severe damage | ||
| 1907-10-21 | Uzbekistan, Tajikistan | 7.4 Ms | IX | 12,000–15,000 | |||
| 1902-08-22 | Kyrgyzstan, China | 7.7 Mw | XI | 2,500-20,000 | Severe damage | ||
| Note: The inclusion criteria for adding events are based on WikiProject Earthquakes' notability guideline that was developed for stand alone articles. The principles described also apply to lists. In summary, only damaging, injurious, or deadly events should be recorded. | |||||||
Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. They range from events too weak to be detectable except by sensitive instrumentation, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the greatest disasters in human history. Below, earthquakes are listed by period, region or country, year, magnitude, cost, fatalities and number of scientific studies.
Many major earthquakes have occurred in the region of the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia. Events in 1737, 1923 and 1952, were megathrust earthquakes and caused tsunamis. There are many more earthquakes and tsunamis originating from the region.
The 1952 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The 9.0 Mw earthquake triggered a major tsunami that hit Severo-Kurilsk, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR, on 5 November 1952 at 04:58 local time. This led to the destruction of many settlements in Sakhalin Oblast and Kamchatka Oblast, while the main impact struck the town of Severo-Kurilsk. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Russia, and the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900.
On April 13, 1923 at 15:31 UTC, an earthquake occurred off the northern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the USSR, present-day Russia. The earthquake had a surface-wave magnitude (Ms ) of 6.8–7.3 and an estimated moment magnitude (Mw ) of 7.0–8.2. This event came just two months after a slightly larger earthquake with an epicenter struck south of the April event. Both earthquakes were tsunamigenic although the latter generated wave heights far exceeding that of the one in February. After two foreshocks of "moderate force", the main event caused considerable damage. Most of the 36 casualties were the result of the tsunami inundation rather than the earthquake.
An earthquake occurred off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula on July 28, 2021, at 10:15 p.m. local time. The large megathrust earthquake had a moment magnitude of 8.2 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). A tsunami warning was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) but later cancelled. The mainshock was followed by a number of aftershocks, including three that were of magnitude 5.9, 6.1 and 6.9 respectively.
The 1841 Kamchatka earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean on May 17 at 08:00 local time. The earthquake had an epicenter off the Russian Far East's Kamchatka Peninsula. With an estimated moment magnitude of 9.0 or higher, it is one of the largest to strike the region. A large tsunami with up to 15 meters in run-up along the coast.
The 1958 Kuril Islands earthquake or Etorofu earthquake was a Mw 8.3–8.4 earthquake that struck near the Kuril island of Iturup on November 6, 1958, at 22:58 UTC, or 09:58 on the 7th local time. The earthquake occurred as the result of shallow reverse faulting along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, and caused Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) X (Extreme) shaking, as well as a tsunami 5 m (16 ft) high. Iturup sustained significant damage as a result of the shaking and tsunami, with other locations along the Kuril Islands also reporting strong damage.
