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The Kuril–Kamchatka Trench or Kuril Trench (Russian: Курило-Камчатский жёлоб, Kurilo-Kamchatskii Zhyolob) is an oceanic trench in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It lies off the southeast coast of Kamchatka and parallels the Kuril Island chain to meet the Japan Trench east of Hokkaido. It extends from a triple junction with the Ulakhan Fault and the Aleutian Trench near the Commander Islands, Russia, in the northeast, to the intersection with the Japan Trench in the southwest.

The trench formed as a result of the subduction zone, which formed in the late Cretaceous, that created the Kuril island arc as well as the Kamchatka volcanic arc. The Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk microplate along the trench, resulting in intense volcanism.

The maximum depth of the trench is reported in peer-reviewed academic papers as 9,600 meters.

Tectonics

At the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench, the Pacific plate is subducting beneath the Okhotsk microplate, a microplate formerly considered to be part of the North American plate. The convergence rate ranges from ≈75 mm (3.0 in)/yr in the north to ≈83 mm (3.3 in)/yr at the southern end. Obliquity of convergence increases to the south, where the transpressional stress is partitioned into trench-normal thrust earthquakes and trench-parallel strike-slip earthquakes. This partitioning results in westward translation of the Kurile forearc relative to the North American plate.

Associated seismicity

Major earthquakes associated with the subduction zone:

See also

• Kamchatka earthquakes
• Ring of Fire

References

1. ^ Rhea, S., et al., 2010, Seismicity of the Earth 1900–2007, Kuril-Kamchatka arc and vicinity, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1083-C, 1 map sheet, scale 1:5,000,000 accessed 25 October 2022
2. Kamenev, Gennady M. (10 February 2022). "Macrofauna and Nematode Abundance in the Abyssal and Hadal Zones of Interconnected Deep-Sea Ecosystems in the Kuril Basin (Sea of Okhotsk) and the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (Pacific Ocean)". Researchgate. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
3. "M8.3 – Sea of Okhotsk". United States Geological Survey. 25 May 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2013.

External links

• Kamchatka & Kuril Islands: Regional Map and Introduction, www.skimountaineer.com, accessed 25 October 2022

47°30′N 155°21′E / 47.500°N 155.350°E / 47.500; 155.350

• Landforms of Asia
• Landforms of the Kuril Islands
• Kamchatka Peninsula
• Oceanic trenches of the Pacific Ocean
• Subduction zones
• Landforms of Russia
• Landforms of Sakhalin Oblast
• Geology of the Russian Far East