Friday 5 April 2013

Deep Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake in the Russian Far East.

A few secods after midnight local time on Saturday 6 April 2013 (slightly after 1.00 pm on 5 April, GMT) the United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake at a depth of slightly over 560 km in the Russian Far East, about 80 km southeast of Vladivostok, close to the borders with China and North Korea. This is a big quake, and close to the surface would probably cause a great deal of damage, but at this depth is much less serious, as rock is a good absorber of shock waves, meaning that little of the energy will reach the surface. As it is no damage or casualties have been reported, though it is likely that the quake was felt over a wide region in all three states.

The location of the 6 April Earthquake. RT.

The Vladivostok area lies withn the central part of the Amur Plate, which underlies the southwest part of the Russian Far East, as well as northeatern China, the Korean Peninsula and southern Japan. The central parts of most tectonic plates are not prone to Earthquakes, but the Amur Plate is affected by the subduction of the Pacific Plate to the southeast, wich passes under the narrow Okhotsk Plate and sinks deeper into the Earth beneath the Amur Plate, causing the occasional large, if deep Earthquake.

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