Earthquake M6.7 hits Sea of Okhotsk

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale hit the Sea of Okhotsk on October 1, 2013.

[click on image to enlarge ]

The submarine earthquake occurred at a depth of 359.3 miles (578.24 km). Earthquakes at such a depth can be felt at great distances from the epicenter.

The danger is that tremors will destabilize methane held in sediments underneath the Arctic Ocean. As above map shows, a fault line connects the Arctic Ocean with the Sea of Okhotsk through Siberia. As above map also shows, a lot of methane is already present over the Arctic on or close to this fault line.

The map below is added to better illustrate the location of the recent earthquake (large red dot at bottom center) and the fault lines.

[ click on image to enlarge ]

Related posts

- Earthquake hits Laptev Sea (2013)http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2013/09/earthquake-hits-laptev-sea.html

- Methane release caused by earthquakes (2013)
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2013/09/methane-release-caused-by-earthquakes.html

- North Hole (2013)
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2013/09/north-hole.html

- Sea of Okhotsk (2013)
Methane-hydrates.blogspot.com/2013/06/sea-of-okhotsk.html

- Seismic activity, by Malcolm Light and Sam Carana (2011)
Arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/seismic-activity.html

- Thermal expansion of the Earth's crust necessitates geoengineering (2011)
Arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/thermal-expansion.html