The 2006 Kamchatka earthquake occurred on April 21, 2006 at 12:25 PM local time.

The hypocenter was located near the coast of Koryak Autonomous Okrug at an estimated depth of 22 km, as reported by the International Seismological Centre.

The northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula lies away from the convergent boundaries of the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and the Aleutian Trench but across the boundary between two blocks within the North American plate, the Kolyma-Chukotka and Bering Sea microplates.

This boundary accommodates both active shortening and right lateral strike-slip across a series of large SW–NE trending faults.

[7] Fieldwork carried out immediately after the earthquake and in the following summer identified a 140 km long zone of surface rupture.