This magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred approximately off the west coast of Honshū, Japan, in a zone of compressional deformation that is associated with the boundary between the Amur Plate and the Okhotsk Plate. At this latitude, the Okhotsk Plate is converging to the west-northwest towards the Amur Plate with a velocity of about 9 mm/yr and a maximum convergence rate of 24 mm/yr. The Amur and Okhotsk plates are themselves relatively small plates that lie between the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Pacific Plate converges west-northwest towards the Eurasia Plate at over 90 mm/yr. Most of the relative motion between the Pacific and Eurasia plates is accommodated approximately to the east-southeast of the epicenter of the earthquake, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk Plate.