Kuril-Kamchatka Trench

Satellite image of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench.

The Kuril-Kamchatka Trench or Kuril Trench (Russian:Курило-Камчатский жёлоб) is an oceanic trench with a maximum depth of 10,542 metres (34,000 ft). It extends from a triple junction with the Ulakhan Fault and the Aleutian Trench to the north, to the Japan Trench to the south.

The trench formed as a result of the subduction zone, which formed in the late Cretaceous, that created the Kuril Islands island arc as well as the Kamchatka volcanic arc. The Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk Plate along the trench, resulting in intense volcanism.