A recent five point one magnitude earthquake was detected offshore from the Kuril Islands, according to Elena Semenova, the head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic station. The report comes from RIA News.
Semenova stated that the quake occurred on February 17 at 17:33 local time, which is 09:33 Moscow time. The tremor’s epicenter lay in the Pacific Ocean, about 102 kilometers southeast of the village of Gornoye on Iturup Island, with a focal depth estimated at 49 kilometers.
Residents of Shikotan and Iturup reported feeling tremors ranging from two to three on the local intensity scale. There were no reported casualties or infrastructure damage, and authorities did not issue a tsunami warning.
In a separate update, a statement noted that an earthquake of magnitude 5.0 occurred in the Altai Republic on February 10, underscoring ongoing seismic activity in distant regions of Russia and neighboring areas.
Separately, researchers from the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences discussed theoretical work on the nature of light dark matter particles. The researchers suggest such particles could, in theory, aggregate into large, asteroid-like objects that might perturb Earth as they pass through the planet. Dark matter is a form of matter that interacts with gravity but does not emit, absorb, or reflect light in any detectable way. Theoretical physicists continue to explore what particles constitute dark matter and what their properties might be. Earlier computer simulations by domestic scientists indicated that a particular class of light dark matter particles could, in principle, form massive objects with significant gravitational influence. These ideas are part of ongoing efforts to understand the composition of dark matter and its potential impacts on planetary environments.
Reports also note that seismic activity near Kamchatka has been noted in past records, highlighting a pattern of regional tremors that has drawn attention from researchers and monitoring agencies alike.
[Citation: RIA News; Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences; regional seismic monitoring offices.]