News: A powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Far East Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific region.
About Kamchatka Peninsula
- Location: It is a peninsula located in far eastern Russia and lying between the Sea of Okhotsk on the west and the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the east.
- Topography: Its topography is dominated by two mountain chains – the Sredinny and Vostocny Mountains which are separated by the Central Kamchatka Depression – a deep and 150 km wide valley.
- Rivers: The Kamchatka River (falls into Pacific Ocean) and the Bystraja River (falls into Sea of Okhotsk) are the main rivers of the Peninsula.
- Peak: The highest peak is the Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4750 m) which is also the highest active volcano in Eurasia.
- Volcanic arcs: Kamchatka is one of the world’s most volcanically active regions with the Pacific Plate is actively subducting beneath the Kamchatka Peninsula at about 80–100 mm per year resulting in three distinct volcanic arcs.
- The Peninsula contains the “volcanoes of Kamchatka”, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that form part of the Ring of Fire.
- Geysers: It is home to the Valley of Geysers, located at the junction of the Shumnaya and Geysernaya rivers.
- The Valley of Geysers has the second-largest concentration of geysers in the world (after Icelandic geyser fields).
- Oceanic trench: The 10,500-metre-deep Kuril–Kamchatka Trench runs immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula.
- Climate: It is generally considered to have a sub-arctic climate and is wetter and milder than inland parts of east Siberia.
- Ocean currents: Cold currents in the Sea of Okhotsk and the cold East Kamchatka Current (also called the Oyashio or Kurile current) have an important impact on the coastal margins of The Peninsula resulting in a cool and maritime climate.
- Vegetation: It lies in the boreal zone of Eurasia and about a third of the area is forested and another one-third is covered with shrub.
- Fauna: Brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus), snow ram, northern deer, sable and wolverine, Stellar’s sea eagle (50% of the world’s population), white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon.
- Inhabitants: Most of the inhabitants are Russian, with indigenous Koryak, Chukchi, and Kamchadal tribes.
