Magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits Russia

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region.

It hit at a depth of 51 km (32 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said on Saturday.

Also, the US National Tsunami Warning Centre said there was a tsunami threat from the quake.

The earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula early Sunday morning local time, the United States Geological Survey also reported.

It struck at in the waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula just after 7 a.m., some 90 kilometers east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Tsunami threat over

The US National Tsunami Warning Centre had initially issued a tsunami threat. But later said the threat had passed. Local authorities never issued a tsunami alert.

Several aftershocks were recorded after the initial quake, but of lower intensity, the Kamchatka branch of Russia’s Unified Geophysical Service reported on its website.

The peninsula lies on a seismically active belt surrounding most of the Pacific Ocean known as the “Ring of Fire”. It is home to more than two dozen active volcanoes.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE