February 18, 2010, 01:26 AM EST
By Bomi Lim and Stuart Biggs
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck close to North Korea’s northeastern border with China and Russia today. The temblor’s depth indicated it was unlikely to have caused extensive damage or triggered by an explosion.
The quake, within Russian territory, occurred at 10:13 a.m. local time, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of North Korea’s Chongjin at a depth of 562.5 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
“Our preliminary assessment is that it is highly unlikely the quake was caused by a nuclear test, given the depth of the epicenter,” Kim Young Sun, spokesman at South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters today in Seoul.
Kim didn’t give further details, saying the government is still looking into the matter.
North Korea’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 triggered tremors that were of less magnitude than that of today’s earthquake. The May 2009 explosion of an atomic device caused a 4.7-magnitude quake at 10 kilometers below the earth’s surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said then.
Chongjin, located in North Hamkyong province, is a key port city for North Korean trade with China. The province is also home to the country’s Rason economic zone.
Earthquake damage diminishes the deeper the temblor is from the earth’s surface, according to the Institute of Crustal Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The magnitude-7 quake on Jan. 12 in Haiti, which killed about 250,000 people, struck at a depth of 13 kilometers.
--Editors: Bill Austin, Aaron Sheldrick
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