Seismologist assessed the risk of a tsunami coming to the shores of Russia after the earthquake in Japan

After the earthquake in Japan, there is a possibility of a tsunami coming to the Southern Kuril Islands, however, the threat to Sakhalin is minimal, and if the wave reaches Kamchatka, it will be weakened. This was announced on December 8 by Peter Shebalin, a seismologist and director of the Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"As for the danger to our territory <...> At first glance, according to the location of the earthquake and how the wave can spread, some kind of effect is possible in the Southern Kuril Islands. In the direction of Sakhalin, it is extremely unlikely that the wave will reach through the ridge of islands, there is nowhere for this wave to pass. Kamchatka, if it gets there, it will already be quite small, apparently," he explained in an interview with RT.

The expert noted that the final assessment of the tsunami threat takes time, as stronger ones may come after the first wave. He also added that the formation of a tsunami with such a magnitude (7.2) requires a shallow location of the source, and in this case it was located at a depth of 50 km, which reduces the likelihood of a destructive wave forming.

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Earlier in the day, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 occurred in northern Japan. Tremors were recorded off the eastern coast of Amori Prefecture. The depth of the earthquake is about 50 km. Later it became known that a tsunami with a height of 40 cm was recorded in the northeast of Japan in the area of Amori Prefecture, as well as on the island of Hokkaido - the wave height reached from 20 to 50 cm.

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