The world’s biggest country has grown a little bigger.
The territory of Russia has expanded by 4.5 square kilometers over the past three years due to earthquakes in the Far East, Interfax reported Friday.
“As a result of the Nevelsk earthquake around the city of Nevelsk on Aug. 2, 2007, the seabed of the Tatar Strait raised up and became an area of dry land covering 3 square kilometers,” said Boris Lenin, director of the far eastern Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Interfax reported.
He said the other 1.5 square kilometers of new territory were the result of a series of volcano eruptions on Matua Island in the central Kuril Islands archipelago in June, when at least 11 powerful explosions were registered within one week.
Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering about 17,075,400 square kilometers, or more than a ninth of Earth’s land area.