MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. The consequences of the recent earthquake in Kamchatka can be compared in terms of coastline changes to the Pompeii disaster in the first century A.D., Arkady Tishkov, one of the world’s leading geography specialists and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.

"A deep-focus earthquake, related to a plate boundary, will trigger substantial changes both to the coastline and terrain and even the sea bottom. Only after some time will we understand what has actually occurred. This is why I am always bringing up Pompeii as an example. Because of the eruption and the earthquake, such restructuring took place that can submerge entire cities and regions. And [the catastrophe] in Pompeii was of local and regional significance, while [in Kamchatka] it was subregional. It affected both the Bering Sea and the seas of Okhotsk and Japan. And I believe the scope of this earthquake is much wider, significantly more extensive than during the time of Pompeii," he said.