The epicentre of Wednesday's earthquake was located at a depth of 40 kilometres (24.8 miles), 162 kilometres (100.6 miles) from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Kamchatka is located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire and regularly suffers from earthquakes. The eastern coast of the peninsula lies along the border of three tectonic plates – the Okhotsk, Pacific, and North American plates – with the latter two moving toward the former, thereby increasing the seismic activity in the region.