RUSSIA - Last week, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula was hit by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake – the sixth largest ever recorded. The tremor released enormous amounts of destructive energy, triggering tsunami warnings as far away as Chile and the western United States. But when the activity had subsided, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences were baffled to find that the peninsula had actually moved away from the mainland. In some places towards the peninsula's southern tip, the landmass had drifted as much as 6.5ft (two metres) to the southeast. That is similar to the movement caused by Japan's 9 magnitude Tohoku earthquake in 2011 – the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded. Scientists believe that the flurry of activity following the initial earthquake has now also triggered two volcanic eruptions in the region.