The 1737 Kamchatka earthquake occurred on October 17 or 16 near the southern tip of present-day

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and we ...

. The shock was felt at approximately 03:00 local time or 16:00 UTC by residents on the peninsula and

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

. The

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

struck at a shallow depth of roughly 40 km (25 miles) beneath the peninsula. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 9.0–9.3 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

Earthquake

The earthquake was associated with thrust faulting on the

subduction zone Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

marked by the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. Calculation of the earthquake magnitude using tsunami data yielded a moment magnitude of 9.3. Studies of the earthquake has placed the

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

() of this earthquake at 9.0 to 9.3 and 8.3 to 8.5 on the

surface wave magnitude The surface wave magnitude (M_s) scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements of Rayleigh surface waves that travel along the uppermost layers of the Earth. This ma ...

. The

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

s generated by this earthquake is thought to be the most destructive and largest ever sourced from the region, alongside the 1952 earthquake. It is thought to be similar in size or possibly larger than the 1952 earthquake.

Descriptions

Stepan Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov (russian: Степа́н Петро́вич Крашени́нников; – ) was a Russian explorer of Siberia, naturalist and geographer who gave the first full description of Kamchatka in the early 18th cent ...

, a Russian explorer, reported the effects of the earthquake in his 1755 publication ''Description of Kamchatka Land''. According to him, the earthquake lasted 15 minutes and was extremely violent. Many homes, constructed of wood and skin, belonging to the natives were obliterated. Many aftershocks were felt even when the tsunami struck. Aftershocks continued until the spring of 1738. Co-seismic deformation along the coasts was so drastic that natives could not recognize the region or locate their settlements. Along the

Okhotsk Sea The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

coast of Kamchatka, the earthquake and its effects were not noticeable.

Tsunami

On the northern Kuril Islands, the tsunami had an estimated height of 20 meters, and 30 meters in the

Avacha Bay Avacha Bay (russian: Авачинская губа, Авачинская бухта) is a Pacific Ocean bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is long and wide (at the mouth), with a maximum depth of . The Avacha River fl ...

. A maximum tsunami amplitude of 12–16 meters was estimated on

Amchitka Amchitka (; ale, Amchixtax̂; russian: Амчитка) is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refu ...

based on evaluating the height where driftwood was found on the island. When

Georg Wilhelm Steller Georg Wilhelm Steller (10 March 1709 – 14 November 1746) was a German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer, who worked in Russia and is considered a pioneer of Alaskan natural history.Evans, Howard Ensign. Edward Osborne Wilson (col.) ...

, a German scientist and explorer visited the region in 1740, he noted the bones of marine mammals and driftwood discovered well above the shoreline. Trees were also found deposited on a ridge with a height of 230 feet or 70 meters. Krasheninnikov's book mentioned a tsunami measuring three sazhen or 6.3 meters inundating the coast. Another wave measuring 30 sazhen or 63 meters swept through the entire coast, killing many natives and destroying their settlements. The force of the tsunami was so powerful that it stripped away dirt and sand, revealing the basement rocks of the

Second Kuril Strait Second Kuril Strait () is a strait located at , which separates the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu in the Kuril Islands, Russia. Straits of the Kuril Islands Paramushir Shumshu {{SakhalinOblast-geo-stub ...

References

{{Earthquakes in Russia 1737 earthquakes Megathrust earthquakes in Russia Tsunamis in Russia 1737 tsunamis 1737 in the Russian Empire History of the Kamchatka Peninsula Earthquakes in the Russian Far East 1737 disasters in the Russian Empire

Earthquake

Descriptions

Tsunami

See also

References