Russia

China

Japan

Mongolia

JapanNorth Korea

South Korea

JapanJapan

United States

Seoul

TokyoKobe

TaeguPusan

Osaka

Jilin

Sendai

Dalian

Anshan

Harbin

KwangjuFukuoka

Qingdao Inch`on

Sapporo

Qiqihar

Yokohama

Tangshan

Changchun

P'yongyang

Khabarovsk

Vladivostok

Cheju

Chita

Wonsan Aomori

Kanggye

Magadan

Yakutsk

Nagasaki

Ch'ongjin

Ch'unch'on

Birobidzhan

Blagoveshchensk

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Petropavloski-Kamchatskiy

120°110°

130°

130°

140°

140°

150°

150° 160°

160°

170°

30°

40°

40°

50°

50°

60°

Map prepared by U.S. Geological SurveyNational Earthquake Information Center2006Map not approved for release by Director USGS

EARTHQUAKE SUMMARY MAP XXXU.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORU.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

DISCLAIMERBase map data, such as place names and politicalboundaries, are the best available but may not be current or may contain inaccuracies and thereforeshould not be regarded as having official significance.

M8.3 Kuril Islands Earthquake of 15 November 2006

Ku r i l -K amc h a t k a T r e n c h

A'

A

S e ao f

O k h o t s k

Iturup

Urup

Simushir

Onetokan

P a c i f i cO c e a n

1973

1969

19181994

19781958 1978

1978

1995 1963 1963

1978

19161991

1918

19131915

1900

146°

146°

148°

148°

150°

150° 152°

152°

154°

154°

156°

156°

158°

43°43°

45°45°

47°47°

49°49°

Epicentral Region

Seismotectonic Setting

Seismic Hazard

EURASIAPLATE

74 mm/year

92 mm/year

OKHOTSKPLATE

NORTH AMERICAPLATE

PACIFIC PLATE

AMUR PLATE

2003

Kuril-

Kamch

atka T

rench

88 mm/year

Japan

Trenc

h

Emperor Seamoun t

Russia

China

Japan

Russia

North Korea

South Korea

Japan

United States

Seoul

TokyoKobe

TaeguPusan

OsakaKyoto

Jilin

Sendai

Harbin

Fukuoka

Sapporo

Qiqihar

Yokohama

Changchun

P'yongyang

Khabarovsk

Vladivostok

Wonsan Aomori

Matsuyama

Ch'ongjin

Ch'unch'on

Birobidzhan

Blagoveshchensk

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Petropavloski-Kamchatskiy

120°

130°

130°

140°

140°

150°

150° 160°

160°

170°

170°

180°

30°

40° 40°

50° 50°

30°

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000250Kilometers

Scale 1:20,000,000

Scale 1:2,500,000

DISCUSSIONThe Kuril Islands earthquake of 15 November 2006, occurred as thrust-faulting on theboundary between the Pacific plate and the Okhotsk plate. In the region of theearthquake's epicenter, the Pacific plate moves northwest with respect to the Okhotsk platewith a velocity of about 90 mm/year. The Pacific plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk plateat the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and becomes progressively deeper to the northwest,remaining seismically active to a depth of 680 km. The 15 November mainshock occurredat shallow depth within about 80 km of the trench axis.The 15 November earthquake is the largest earthquake to have occurred in the centralKuril Islands since the early 20th century. A central Kuril Islands earthquake in 1915 isestimated to have had a magnitude of about 8. The central Kuril Islands commonlyexperiences one or more shocks of magnitude 6 or greater in a decade. To the southwest,the southern Kuril Islands chain experienced a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in 1963. To thenortheast, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred offshore of Kamchatka in 1952.

Significant Earthquakes Mag ≥ 7.5

Year Mn Dy Lat Long Dep Mag1900 1 31 48.000 146.000 450 7.51913 8 1 47.500 155.500 0 7.71915 5 1 47.500 154.500 35 7.91916 10 31 45.400 154.000 0 7.61918 9 7 46.812 150.253 242 7.61918 11 8 43.816 152.775 63 7.51958 11 6 44.329 148.623 35 8.41963 10 13 44.770 149.798 13 8.61963 10 20 44.772 150.563 27 7.91969 8 11 43.478 147.815 45 8.21973 6 17 43.223 145.743 43 7.81978 3 23 44.982 148.523 21 7.61978 3 23 44.359 149.113 8 7.51978 3 24 44.233 148.923 12 7.51978 12 6 44.455 146.475 181 7.81991 12 22 45.615 151.010 25 7.61994 10 4 43.945 147.224 14 8.31995 12 3 44.663 149.300 33 7.9

Seismic hazard is expressed as peakground acceleration (PGA) on firmrock, in meters/sec², expected to beexceeded in a 50-yr period with aprobability of 10 percent.

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000250Kilometers

Scale 1:20,000,000

EXPLANATIONGlobal Seismic Hazard

0 - 0.2 cm/sec².2 - .4.4 - .8.8 - 1.61.6 - 3.23.2 - 6.46.4 - 9.8

-200

-200

-150

-150

-100

-100

-50

-50

0

0

50

50

100

100

150

150

-200 -200

-150 -150

-100 -100

-50 -50

Depth SectionA A'

DATA SOURCESEARTHQUAKES AND SEISMIC HAZARD USGS, National Earthquake Information Center NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center IASPEI, Centennial Catalog (1900 - 1999) and extensions (Engdahl and Villaseñor, 2002) HDF (unpublished earthquake catalog) (Engdahl, 2003) Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP, 1999)PLATE TECTONICS PB2002 (Bird, 2003)BASE MAP ESRI (1992), Digital Chart of the World GLOBE (1999) IOC, IHO, and BODC (2003)

0 100 200 300 40050Kilometers

EXPLANATION

15 November 2006

AftershocksEarthquake Magnitude

4.50 - 4.995.00 - 5.996.00 - 6.997.00 - 7.998.00 - 8.99

Earthquake Depth0 - 65 km65 - 300300 - 600

Plate BoundarySubductionTransformDivergentConvergent

Finite Fault Model

REFERENCESBird, P., 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries: Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., v. 4, no. 3, pp. 1027- 80.Engdahl, E.R. and Villaseñor, A., 2002, Global Seismicity: 1900 - 1999, chap. 41 of Lee, W.H.K., and others,eds.,International Earthquake and Engineering Seismology, Part A: New York, N.Y., Elsevier Academic Press, 932 p.Engdahl, E.R., Van der Hilst, R.D., and Buland, R.P., 1998, Global teleseismic earthquake relocation with improvedtravel times and procedures for depth determination: Bull. Seism. Soc. Amer., v. 88, p. 722-743.Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992, 1993, Digital Chart of the World: ESRI, Data Dictionary andCDROM(4), Redlands, Calif., USA.GLOBE Task Team and others, 1999, The Global Land One-Kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) Digital ElevationModel, Version 1.0: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colo., USA.IOC, IHO, and BODC, 2003, Centenary Edition of the GEBCO Digital Atlas: CD-ROM(2), British OceanographicData Centre, Liverpool, UK.Ji, C., D.J. Wald, and D.V. Helmberger, Source description of the 1999 Hector Mine, California earthquake; Part I:Wavelet domain inversion theory and resolution analysis, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., Vol 92, No. 4. pp. 1192-1207, 2002.

Bassin, C., Laske, G. and Masters, G., The Current Limits of Resolution for Surface Wave Tomography in NorthAmerica, EOS Trans AGU, 81, F897, 2000.

FINITE FAULT MODELContributed byC. Ji, California Institute of TechnologyDistribution of the amplitude and direction of slip forsubfault elements (small rectangles) of the fault rupturemodel are determined from the inversion of teleseismic bodywaveforms. Arrows indicate the amplitude and direction ofslip (of the hanging wall with respect to the foot wall); theslip amount is also color-coded as shown. The view is fromabove, per-pendicular to the fault plane.The orientation of the finite fault plane may differ from thecorresponding best double couple nodal plane depicted in thefocal mechanism diagram on the main map. This is due todifferent methods of analysis.The strike of the fault rupture plane is 214 (S 34 W) and thedip is 15°. The dimensions of the subfault elements are 20km in the strike direction and 12.5 km in the dip direction.

EXPLANATIONSlip, Finite Fault Model

0 - 100100 - 200200 -300300 -400400 -500500 -600600 -700700 - 800800 - 900

Kuril Islands, Russia15 November 2006 11:14:16 UTC46.616° N, 153.224° EDepth 28.5 kmMw = 8.3 (Harvard)A great earthquake occurred 495 km (305 miles) SSW ofSevero-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia and 1665 km (1030 miles)NE of Tokyo, Japan, at 5:14 AM MDT, Nov 15, 2006 (10:14 PMlocal time in Russia). The magnitude and location may berevised when additional data and further analysis results areavailable.Felt at Misawa and Yokosuka, Japan and at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia. At least three docks at Crescent City,California, were damaged by a tsunami with a measured waveheight of 1.8 m. Measured wave heights (peak-to-trough) of thetsunami: 0.60 m at Tokachi, 0.40 m at Nemuro and 0.20 m atKushiro, Japan; 1.52 m at Kahului, 1.14 m at Haleiwa, 0.99 m atWaianae, 0.99 m at Hilo, 0.89 m at Nawiliwili and 0.89 m atKalaupapa, Hawaii; 0.20 m at Shemya Island and 0.08 m atAmchitka Island, Alaska.