7.7 magnitude quake in Russia triggers tsunami warning

An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale triggered a tsunami warning on Monday when it hit an area in the Bering Sea near Russia's Nikolskoye region, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

According to the USGS, the tremor occurred 199 km east of Nikolskoye on Bering Island, where more than 600 people live, at a depth of 11.7 km, reports Efe news.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami warning for Japan, Russia, the Marshall Islands and the island of Yap in Micronesia, as well as Guam, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands, and other outlying areas of the US in the North Pacific Ocean.

The chain of the Aleutian Islands, where Bering Island is located, is a zone with frequent seismic activity that extends to about 3,000 km from the US Gulf of Alaska in the east to the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka in the west.

--IANS

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