Canadian PressPublished: Thursday, April 20, 2006 Article tools * * * * MOSCOW (AP) - A major earthquake hit a distant region of Russia's Far East on Friday, causing unknown damage and casualties, a Russian emergency official said. The U.S. Geological Survey and Japan's Meteorological Agency estimated the quake's magnitude at 7.7. The quake struck at 12:25 p.m. local time in the Koryak region, nearly 7,000 kilometres east of Moscow and some 1,000 kilometres north of the largest city in the area, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, said Oleg Kotosanov, a duty officer with the regional emergency situations ministry. The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which destroyed more than one-half of the city's buildings and left between 3,000 and 6,000 people dead 100 years ago this week, was estimated at a magnitude of between 7.7 and 7.9. © The Canadian Press 2006