by Moscow (AP) – A strong earthquake met on Wednesday in front of the Russia’s Far East coast in Far East, flooded a fishing port with waves from a tsunami, lowered the power supply to some areas and sent some in panic residents that flee from buildings, but cause only a few injuries.
The regional authorities say they are prepared for the quake of 8.8 magnites and the subsequent waves and moved quickly to protect the residents. In some areas they introduced a state of emergency, but said that there was no major damage.
Here is what you should know about the Russian areas that are hit by the quake and tsunami:
Kamchatka peninsula
Kamchatka referred to as the “land of fire and ice” and is one of the most active volcanic regions on earth. It has about 300 volcanoes, with 29 of them still active, according to NASA’s straw observation. Stems and tsunamis regularly meet the peninsula, which is near an ocean rab, where two tectonic plates meet.
The 750 miles long peninsula-nine-time zones east of Moscow is in the east and the sea of Okhotsk along the west coast. Kamchatka and some nearby islands have around 290,000 inhabitants, of which around 162,000 in the regional capital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatky live in Avacha Bay in the southeast of the peninsula.
There are only a few streets on the peninsula, and helicopters are the only way to reach most areas. Fishing is the main economic activity. An important basis for Russian atom -u boats is located in Avacha Bay.
The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 meters or 15,584 feet), the largest active volcano in the northern hemisphere. Observers heard explosions and saw lava streams on his western slopes, according to the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have been expecting eruption for some time, with the crater of the volcano for weeks filling with lava and radiating the ashes’ mountain clouds. It last broke out in 2023.
The Kuril Islands
The four volcanic islands known in Russia as Kurils stretch between Kamchatka and the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The islands were captured by the Soviet Union from Japan in the last days of the Second World War. Japan claims territorial rights to the islands, which it calls northern areas, and the dispute has prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty
The islands have about 20,000 inhabitants and the local economy is based on fishing. The Russian military has strengthened its presence in the region and renovated an air base of the Soviet period and other outposts.
The effects of the quake and the tsunami
The Kamchatka and the Kurils’ authorities said they had long been prepared for a large quake and quickly acted to protect the population.
The 8.8-Magnite quake, centered about 120 kilometers (75 miles from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, beat at 11:24 a.m. local time (2324 GMT Tuesday, 7:24 a.m. on Tuesday) at a depth of about 21 kilometers (13 miles).
The earthquake seemed to be the strongest since the earthquake of 9.0 magnitude in front of the northeast of Japan in March 2011, which caused a massive tsunami. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured everywhere.
The regional authorities on Kamchatka said that several people were injured, but they did not approach. The head of the regional Ministry of Health, Oleg Melnikov, performed during the evacuations, including a hospital patient who was injured from a window when jumping. Everyone was in a satisfactory condition, he said.
Videos from Russian media showed doctors on Kamchatka, who kept patient and medical equipment as an operating room in the operation during the operation. The quake damaged a kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, but there were no children in the building that was closed for renovation. Community workers inspected around 600 residential buildings and said that no evacuations were required.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was protected from his location in Avacha Bay from Big Tsunami waves. Rescue workers evacuated around 60 tourists from a beach made of black vulkansand on the Pacific side.
Tsunami waves could have been up to 10 to 15 meters (30 to 50 feet) in some sections of the Kamchatka coast, the Russia Oceanology Institute said and found that the largest areas near populated areas of the peninsula and the nearby Kuril Islands were.
The authorities in Severo-Kurilsk, the capital of the Kurils, evacuated the residents of danger areas to deeper countries.
The mayor of Severo-Kurilsk, Alexander Ovsyannikov, said Tsunami waves flooded the fishing port together with a fish factory and swept fishing boats to the sea. Power was shortened by the floods, with the authorities inspired the damage.
Tourists who sailed from the Kurils in the sea of Okhotsk watched a group of sea lions from a rocky information to the island of Antsiferov Mass and swam, as the quake hit said, said a tour guide.
The sea lions seemed to be “very scared and a terrible rumble began,” said Alexander Bogoslovskiy Alexander Alexander Bogoslovskiy and added that all tourists were safe from the effects of quake and tsunami.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov found that the beige warnings were exhibited in good time, people were quickly evacuated and buildings withstand the shocks.
