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Magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Kuril Islands, Russia

Friday, November 16, 2012 15:31

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(Before It's News)

Strong earthquake measuring M 6.8 struck Kuril Islands, Russia at 18:12:42 UTC on November 16,2012 according to USGS. This is still preliminary magnitude, updates will be available soon. The epicenter was located 162 km (101 miles) SSW (198°) from Severo-Kuril’sk, Kuril Islands, Russia (49.200°N, 155.700°E) at depth of 4.9 km (3.0 miles). EMSC registered M 6.0 at the depth of 60 km (37.3 miles).

Recent activity map (Source: USGS)

Intensity shaking map (Source: USGS)

Magnitude	6.8
Date-Time	Friday, November 16, 2012 at 18:12:37 UTC Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 05:12:37 AM at epicenter
Location	49.291°N, 155.445°E
Depth	4.9 km (3.0 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region	KURIL ISLANDS
Distances	162 km (100 miles) SSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia 454 km (282 miles) SSW of Vilyuchinsk, Russia 474 km (294 miles) SSW of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia 479 km (297 miles) SSW of Yelizovo, Russia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 15.1 km (9.4 miles); depth +/- 6.7 km (4.2 miles)
Parameters	NST=328, Nph=334, Dmin=454.2 km, Rmss=0.92 sec, Gp= 40°, M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source	Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usc000dtr7

The epicenter is far out of the coast in a sparsely populated to unpopulated area. There are no tsunami warnings issued at the moment.

Earthquake map (Source: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center)

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1821Z 16 NOV 2012
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
 ORIGIN TIME -  1813Z 16 NOV 2012
 COORDINATES -  49.2 NORTH  155.7 EAST
 DEPTH       -   60 KM
 LOCATION    -  KURIL ISLANDS
 MAGNITUDE   -  6.8
EVALUATION
 NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
 HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
 HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
 TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
 A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
 IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS
 POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ALSO ISSUE TSUNAMI MESSAGES
FOR THIS EVENT TO COUNTRIES IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC AND SOUTH
CHINA SEA REGION.  IN CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION... THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.

All magnitudes estimations :
mb6.5 (BEO) Mw7.2 (BGSG) ML2.9 (GFU) M 6.5 (GFZ) Mb6.5 (GSRC) Mw6.8 (JMA) MB6.7 (LDG) MB6.7 (LED) MB6.7 (MAD) Mb6.3 (MSO) Mw6.8 (NEIC) Mb5.1 (NEWS) Mb5.1 (NEWS) Mb4.8 (NEWS) Mw6.8 (PTWC) Mw6.8 (PTWC) Mb6.7 (ZAMG)

UPDATE 1 (18:40 UTC, November 16,2012)

EMSC revised preliminary magnitude 6.0 to 6.8, and the depth was changed to 2 km.

UPDATE 2 (19:00 UTC, November 16, 2012)

EMSC revised magnitude to 6.6 and the depth was changed to 5 km.

Featured image credit: EMSC + Google Earth

Magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Kuril Islands, Russia