WASHINGTON - A POWERFUL 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck early on Monday an area in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia's Far East, the US government reported.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred at 0902 GMT (5.02pm Singapore time), was located 314km west of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia, according to the US Geological Survey.

The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no destructive tsunami threat existed as a result of this quake. -- AFP