August 2025
On the 29th July 2025 a 8.8 megathrust earthquake struck off the eastern Kamchatka Peninsular coast in Russia. The news probably caused many Christchurch, New Zealand residents to reflect on their 2010 and 2011 earthquake experiences.
Kamchatka is a remote 1,250km long Russian peninsula flanked by the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Okhotsk. It is on the Circum-Pacific seismic belt or the so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ which is prone to seismic activity. As a consequence of its remoteness, fortunately there were zero reported fatalities. The earthquake struck 118km east-south-east of the coastal city of Petropavovsk (population 163,000) at a depth of 35km.
At 4:35am on Saturday 4th September 2010 an Earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale struck 40km West of Christchurch at a depth of 10km. Sadly two people died as a consequence.
At 12:51pm on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 another Earthquake measuring 6.3 struck 6.7km South East of Christchurch at a depth of 4km and sadly one hundred and eighty five people died as a consequence.
For comparative purposes; an 8.8 Earthquake (The Kamchatka quake) is approximately 63 times stronger in terms of shaking intensity than a 7.1 Earthquake (Christchurch’s 2010 quake) and exponentially released hundreds of times more energy.
Each whole number increase on the Richter Scale (an algorithmic scale) represents a tenfold increase in amplitude (a measurement of the amount of energy transferred by a wave) and a 32-fold increase in energy release. Hence the recent Kamchatka 8.8 shake was approximately 126 times more powerful than the 2010 Christchurch 7.1 shake.
The images are some of the aftermaths of the 2010 & 2011 Christchurch earthquakes