Powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes Bering Sea, NCS confirms | World News

According to India’s National Center for Seismology (NCS), a powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.1 occurred in the Bering Sea on Monday morning.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of 45 kilometers underground. NCS said in a post about

The central Bering Sea is considered largely seismic. However, seismic activity increases towards the northern and southern edges. In the north, a large, widespread earthquake zone stretches from western Alaska across the Bering Strait to eastern Russia. Researchers believe this marks the northern boundary of the Bering microplate.

To the south is the Aleutian Arc, one of the most active seismic zones in the region. Earthquakes here are linked to ongoing subduction as one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, according to research from the University of Alaska.

Historical data indicate that significant seismic events occurred across the wider region. In 1991, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred approximately 210 km southeast of the April 30, 2010 earthquakes. Studies of the 1991 and 2010 events suggest north-south extension and east-west compression of the crust.

The University of Alaska said the April 30, 2010 earthquake may have been structurally linked to a graben-like formation beneath the upper wall of Zhemchug Canyon, the world’s largest submarine canyon by volume. Both the main shock and the strongest aftershock were classified as strike-slip earthquakes.

The structural fabric of the cranial wall is oriented northwest-southeast, parallel to the left lateral nodal plane of the April 30 events, the researchers noted. The right-lateral nodal plane is aligned with the broader crustal fabric of the possible offshore continuation of major northeast-southwest-trending strike-slip fault systems in western Alaska, including the Kaltag, Kobuk, and Denali faults. If these structures lie under the sea, they could be the source of the 2010 earthquakes.

The Bering Sea lies within the broader seismic belt surrounding the Pacific, often referred to as the “Ring of Fire.” According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), approximately 81 percent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur in this zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean.

The region borders tectonic plates, where oceanic crust is often forced beneath adjacent plates. Earthquakes in these regions are caused by movement along plate boundaries as well as fractures within the plates themselves. The strongest earthquakes recorded throughout the belt include the 1960 magnitude 9.5 Chile (Valdivia) earthquake and the 1964 magnitude 9.2 Alaska earthquake.

(with ANI entries)