The number of aftershocks following a powerful earthquake in Russia’s Far East region of Kamchatka has decreased by 40% over the past week, according to the regional branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
"213 aftershocks have been registered in seven days. For comparison, there were 359 of them in the past week," the department noted, News.Az reports, citing TASS.
According to the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the aftershock process after the tremor is developing according to a typical scenario. The number of felt earthquakes is decreasing, however, scientists do not rule out the possibility of another tremor with a magnitude of about five points.
A powerful earthquake struck off Kamchatka’s coast on the morning of July 30. According to the authorities, it measured at 8.8, becoming the strongest earthquake to hit the region since 1952. The Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geophysical Service estimated the magnitude of the quake at 8.7. A state of high alert was declared in Kamchatka, while a state of emergency was declared in the Severo-Kurilsky District of the neighboring Sakhalin Region. The quake triggered a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, which prompted the authorities in Japan, the US and the Philippines to issue tsunami warnings.
