The April 19, 2013 M 7.2 earthquake ENE of Kuril'sk, Russia, occurred as the result of oblique normal faulting at intermediate depths within the subducting lithosphere of the Pacific plate. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Pacific plate converges with the North America plate towards the west-northwest at a velocity of approximately 82 mm/yr, and subducts beneath the Kuril Islands at the Kuril-Kamchatka trench, about 160 km to the southeast of the April 19 event.
The depth of this earthquake, and its oblique-faulting mechanism, indicate that it involved intraplate faulting within the subducting slab, rather than being an interplate thrust event in the shallower seismogenic zone between the two tectonic plates.
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