Russia hit with one of the strongest ever quakes - how bad is an 8.8 earthquake?
The US Geological survey said the earthquake was shallow, with its epicentre at a depth of about 19km (12 miles) and 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Russia's remote Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city with a population of about 165,000 people.
Earthquakes are caused when the planet's rocky tectonic plates, floating on magma, rub against each other, releasing massive amounts of energy.
While the Richter scale has been traditionally used and mainly effective for regional earthquakes up to about magnitude 5, the Moment magnitude scale is used for larger tremors as it takes into account more factors like the size of the fault rupture.
Quake magnitudes are measured on a logarithmic scale, meaning a near magnitude 9 quake is 1,000 times more powerful than one measuring 6.
Biggest quakes in recorded history
The devastation to life and property caused by an earthquake is often dependent on a number of factors, such as the distance from the quake's epicentre, the architecture of a region and its population density, as well as the depth of the earthquake event and its surrounding geological conditions, as well as after effects like tsunamis.
For instance, an earthquake that hit Morocco, measuring a magnitude of 6.8, led to nearly 3,000 fatalities as it struck at a shallow depth of only about 12 to 18 km.
The biggest earthquake in recorded history was one of magnitude 9.5 that struck Valdivia, Chile in 1960, killing from 1,000 to 6,000 people, according to various sources.
Its epicentre was at a subduction zone where the Pacific continental tectonic plate dives under the South American plate.
The second biggest quake, with a magnitude of 9.2, struck Alaska in 1964 and was also at a subduction zone where the Pacific plate dives under the North American plate.
While on a scale comparable to the Chile quake, the Alaskan earthquake killed fewer than 150 people, with 15 directly attributed to the earthquake and over 120 caused by a resulting tsunami.
The Great Tohuku earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 was of magnitude 9.1, but triggered a massive tsunami waves measuring over 40 metres tall in some areas, leading to over 15,000 deaths and displacing over 130,000 people.
In the current century, the infamous 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake is the largest in terms of magnitude at 9.3M, also triggering a devastating tsunami that claimed a quarter million lives.
Warning signs
Some megaquakes have been preceded by smaller 'foreshocks'. However, such smaller tremors cannot be identified as a foreshock until after a larger earthquake hits the same area. In the case of the Russian earthquake, scientists have spotted several foreshocks that struck around the region in the past month.
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake recorded in the region on 20 July, could now be considered a foreshock to this morning's earthquake, according to the USGS.
'A clear subduction megathrust event. And another M>8.5 event with a notable foreshock (the recent M7.4 in same location), like Tohoku 2011. Tsunami warnings/watches should be taken seriously,' seismologist Harold Tobin, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network said in a post on X.
While the area impacted by this 8.8M quake has been large, the number of people living in and around the region is 'limited', according to data released by the USGS.
'Interestingly, the M8.8 earthquake this morning was preceded by a series of highly intensive foreshocks, including an Mw 7.4 earthquake and three Mw 6.6 earthquakes (July 20, 2025), as well as a series of smaller earthquakes before the main earthquake,' seismologist Dimas Salomo Sianpar from Indonesia said in a post on X.
'The foreshock phenomenon was also observed in other megathrust earthquake events,' Dr Salomo Sianpar said in a translated post.
Several people were injured in the Russia's remote region following the 8.8 quake and Japan has issued a tsunami advisory, warning its eastern seaboard of waves of up to 3m (10ft) high.
No serious injuries or fatalities had been reported, according to Russia's Ministry for Emergency Services.
The US Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of "hazardous tsunami waves" within the next three hours.
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Yahoo
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Are electric scooters safe? A rash of injuries, deaths raises concerns.
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By comparison, ER trips stemming from e-bike accidents added up to 53,200, or less than 15%. Just as concerning, of the 233 micromobility-related deaths the CPSC registered through that six-year stretch, nearly half (111) were from e-scooter incidents, usually as a result of collisions with cars and/or control issues. Scooters mistakenly seen as 'very low risk' After a dip in the early part of the COVID pandemic, the ER-worthy injuries related to powered scooters – mostly the electric variety – have steadily risen from just under 30,000 in 2020 to 118,485 last year, nearly twice the 2023 total (64,329). 'People view scooters as very, very low risk for some reason, but we do see broken wrists, head injuries, neck injuries, cervical injuries. Those are all very common," said Dr. Eric Cioe-Peña, associate professor of emergency medicine and vice president of Northwell's Center for Global Health in Long Island, New York. 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He said the worst e-scooter injuries he has seen at the ER involved a helmetless rider in Staten Island whose vehicle's front wheel hit an irregular spot on the street – possibly a storm drain slot – and was catapulted over the handlebar. The rider landed on concrete, sustaining a severe concussion and ankle and wrist fractures. 'The pedestrian risk is more sensational," Cioe-Peña said, 'but the real burden of disease is head injuries with unhelmeted riders." Studies of helmet use among e-scooter riders are scarce but generally show low percentages, as little as 2%. Alex Engel, a spokesperson for NACTO, said most of e-scooter injuries are sustained by riders, who are vulnerable to potholes or small objects on the road causing accidents. 'With e-scooters the center of gravity is much higher because you're standing on them, and because the wheels are much smaller and there's in general much less shock (absorption), pavement quality tends to matter a lot more than it does for bikes or e-bikes," Engel said. A need for more safe places to ride Still, he pointed out cars are by far the biggest danger to riders, which makes the significant increase in bike lanes across many cities a welcome development for micromobility fans. 'The most important thing any city can do is providing safe places for people to ride," Engel said. 'That provides space for those who are already riding, and it encourages more ridership. There's safety in numbers.'' Few if any cities have bike lanes on every street, and it's not uncommon to see e-scooters on sidewalks, which is generally against the law. Though civic leaders tend to appreciate the e-scooters' eco-friendly convenience, a few cities and two states – Pennsylvania and Delaware – have effectively banned them from public roads. There's wide variation in state and municipal regulations regarding e-scooters, from minimum age requirements to whether riding on sidewalks is allowed, leading to confusion among practitioners. While more than 30 states have set speed limits of between 15 mph and 20 mph, another six permit riders to go at least as fast as 25 mph, according to a detailed guide on the webpage of scooter maker Unagi. Lax enforcement of regulations The regulations are not commonly known and rarely enforced, said Joseph Schofer, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University who specializes in transportation issues. 'A teenager riding a scooter, my sense is they have no obligation to get training," Schofer said. 'And if there is, there's no way to enforce it." He remembers a few years ago seeing a man on a rental e-scooter riding around Washington, D.C., with his child, maybe 2 or 3 years old, on his shoulders. It was a reminder of the need for better public education regarding these contraptions, not to mention common sense. Schofer said he sees the value in efficient conveyances like e-scooters, which can make it easier to navigate city streets. He also wonders about the risk involved, especially for young riders and tourists who may not be familiar with a town's layout and traffic patterns. 'You have a really cheap avenue to getting access to motorized transportation, and to young people who aren't licensed drivers, and to people of limited income, it's very appealing," he said. 'So how do you make this work?" 'A place in the transportation ecosystem' Dr. Ben Breyer, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, said that's where city involvement comes in. Breyer spent 10 years at San Francisco's leading trauma center and conducted several studies on bicycle trauma. More recently, he collaborated in a widely cited UCSF study published last summer that found nationwide e-bike injuries nearly doubled and e-scooter injuries rose by more than 45% every year from 2017-2022. Despite that, Breyer's likes the potential for these vehicles. 'These kind of micromobility options do have a place in the transportation ecosystem," he said. 'They help keep cars off the road, they help decrease congestion, they help people make that final mile in their commute. I think we need more infrastructure to help support riders, and there may need to be some regulations on maximum speeds and these kind of things to help ensure folks ride safely." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are electric scooters safe? Injuries, deaths raise concerns.
USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Are electric scooters safe? A rash of injuries, deaths raises concerns.
The growing popularity of e-scooters has been accompanied by skyrocketing numbers of injuries. SAN FRANCISCO – A 77-year-old man was killed after being hit by an electric scooter while crossing a street in downtown San Francisco in July, the type of serious scooter-pedestrian collision the city's police department calls 'uncommon.'' Other types of e-scooter accidents that result in a trip to the emergency room, however, are becoming all too frequent across the nation. The growing popularity of electric scooters – easily accessible for commuters to reach their final destination or tourists to enjoy sightseeing – has been accompanied by skyrocketing numbers of injuries, typically to the riders and at times to others in their way. A 2023 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed that from 2017 – when the devices were first introduced at scale – through 2022, the U.S. recorded 360,800 ER visits related to e-bikes, e-scooters and hoverboards, known collectively as micromobility vehicles. Of those visits, 169,300 were linked to the scooters, or 47%. By comparison, ER trips stemming from e-bike accidents added up to 53,200, or less than 15%. Just as concerning, of the 233 micromobility-related deaths the CPSC registered through that six-year stretch, nearly half (111) were from e-scooter incidents, usually as a result of collisions with cars and/or control issues. Scooters mistakenly seen as 'very low risk' After a dip in the early part of the COVID pandemic, the ER-worthy injuries related to powered scooters – mostly the electric variety – have steadily risen from just under 30,000 in 2020 to 118,485 last year, nearly twice the 2023 total (64,329). 'People view scooters as very, very low risk for some reason, but we do see broken wrists, head injuries, neck injuries, cervical injuries. Those are all very common," said Dr. Eric Cioe-Peña, associate professor of emergency medicine and vice president of Northwell's Center for Global Health in Long Island, New York. Cioe-Peña has noticed the surge in injuries over the last five years, coinciding with the rise in e-scooter ridership. According to data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials, dockless scooter ridership in the U.S. was up to 65 million in 2023, the latest year for which the nonprofit has statistics. As of 2024, there were 130 American cities with e-scooter-sharing programs, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says. And a recent report projects the North American market for e-bikes and e-scooters to grow from about $500 million last year to more than $3 billion by 2033. Ignoring traffic rules and neglecting protection All those rides will inevitably lead to more injuries, and Cioe-Peña expressed concern about the number or riders who ignore the rules of the road – such as blowing past stop signs – and neglect to wear protective equipment, especially helmets. He said the worst e-scooter injuries he has seen at the ER involved a helmetless rider in Staten Island whose vehicle's front wheel hit an irregular spot on the street – possibly a storm drain slot – and was catapulted over the handlebar. The rider landed on concrete, sustaining a severe concussion and ankle and wrist fractures. 'The pedestrian risk is more sensational," Cioe-Peña said, 'but the real burden of disease is head injuries with unhelmeted riders." Studies of helmet use among e-scooter riders are scarce but generally show low percentages, as little as 2%. Alex Engel, a spokesperson for NACTO, said most of e-scooter injuries are sustained by riders, who are vulnerable to potholes or small objects on the road causing accidents. 'With e-scooters the center of gravity is much higher because you're standing on them, and because the wheels are much smaller and there's in general much less shock (absorption), pavement quality tends to matter a lot more than it does for bikes or e-bikes," Engel said. A need for more safe places to ride Still, he pointed out cars are by far the biggest danger to riders, which makes the significant increase in bike lanes across many cities a welcome development for micromobility fans. 'The most important thing any city can do is providing safe places for people to ride," Engel said. 'That provides space for those who are already riding, and it encourages more ridership. There's safety in numbers.'' Few if any cities have bike lanes on every street, and it's not uncommon to see e-scooters on sidewalks, which is generally against the law. Though civic leaders tend to appreciate the e-scooters' eco-friendly convenience, a few cities and two states – Pennsylvania and Delaware – have effectively banned them from public roads. There's wide variation in state and municipal regulations regarding e-scooters, from minimum age requirements to whether riding on sidewalks is allowed, leading to confusion among practitioners. While more than 30 states have set speed limits of between 15 mph and 20 mph, another six permit riders to go at least as fast as 25 mph, according to a detailed guide on the webpage of scooter maker Unagi. Lax enforcement of regulations The regulations are not commonly known and rarely enforced, said Joseph Schofer, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University who specializes in transportation issues. 'A teenager riding a scooter, my sense is they have no obligation to get training," Schofer said. 'And if there is, there's no way to enforce it." He remembers a few years ago seeing a man on a rental e-scooter riding around Washington, D.C., with his child, maybe 2 or 3 years old, on his shoulders. It was a reminder of the need for better public education regarding these contraptions, not to mention common sense. Schofer said he sees the value in efficient conveyances like e-scooters, which can make it easier to navigate city streets. He also wonders about the risk involved, especially for young riders and tourists who may not be familiar with a town's layout and traffic patterns. 'You have a really cheap avenue to getting access to motorized transportation, and to young people who aren't licensed drivers, and to people of limited income, it's very appealing," he said. 'So how do you make this work?" 'A place in the transportation ecosystem' Dr. Ben Breyer, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, said that's where city involvement comes in. Breyer spent 10 years at San Francisco's leading trauma center and conducted several studies on bicycle trauma. More recently, he collaborated in a widely cited UCSF study published last summer that found nationwide e-bike injuries nearly doubled and e-scooter injuries rose by more than 45% every year from 2017-2022. Despite that, Breyer's likes the potential for these vehicles. 'These kind of micromobility options do have a place in the transportation ecosystem," he said. 'They help keep cars off the road, they help decrease congestion, they help people make that final mile in their commute. I think we need more infrastructure to help support riders, and there may need to be some regulations on maximum speeds and these kind of things to help ensure folks ride safely."
Scientific American
7 hours ago
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Russia's Earthquake, Wonders of Walking and Plant Genetics
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! And happy August. For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. Let's kick off the month with a quick roundup of some of the latest news in science. First, we have Andrea Thompson, senior news editor for sustainability at Scientific American, to tell us about last week's earthquake and the resulting tsunami waves. Andrea Thompson: Last Tuesday a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula in a subduction zone, where the Pacific plate is plunging below part of the North American plate. And subduction zones are typically where you'd see tsunamis be generated because you have a big shift in the earth that sort of provides a big push to the water. And this area, actually, did produce a really big tsunami back in 1952, when there was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. So sort of tsunami alerts, warnings, advisories were released kind of all around the Pacific—so there were some in Japan; some in Russia; Hawaii; all along sort of the North American coastline, you know, from the Aleutians down to Southern California; also in South America. And some of this is because we generate warnings if there is the likelihood of tsunami waves arriving and there is the possibility of them causing damage, because you wanna give people as much time as possible to move away from the coast or reach higher ground. And then in the hours after an earthquake we sort of get more information that helps refine, 'Okay, how much energy was released? How is that likely to track sort of around the basin?' And, and that's why you'll see changes, going from maybe a warning to an advisory or something different. Luckily, the waves were not catastrophic, but there were eight-foot waves in parts of California. There were definitely waves in Japan and in Hawaii. Luckily, in a lot of these places they didn't cause considerable damage, but, you know, there was structural damage, and these kind of waves, they're not on the scale of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but they're still strong enough to sweep a person off their feet or to wipe away a structure. So, you know, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake is a really big earthquake [laughs]. That is up there among the strongest ever on record. In 1952, when there was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, that caused damage as far away as Hawaii. This one, it turns out, did not produce as big a tsunami as that, although 8.8 sounds really close to 9.0, but the scale of measuring earthquakes is not linear, so there's a big jump in the amount of energy released when you go from 8.8 to 9.0, which is probably part of the reason this earthquake didn't produce as big of a tsunami. So I think one of the things that [we should] take away from this is that our warning systems work really well. You know, in 1952 a lot of people were killed and there was damage because no one knew what was happening. And we've built up these really robust tsunami warning arrays and sensors, and through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration we have monitoring for tsunamis and issuing warnings, and it's clear that it works: people were alerted, they were able to stay away from coasts, and we didn't see, you know, the casualties that we could have if there wasn't a warning. And that is also because we've put a lot of public funding into the science behind this and to keeping this running. Feltman: Thanks for that update, Andrea. Next, some troubling news from the Environmental Protection Agency. Last Tuesday the EPA began making moves to repeal the so-called endangerment finding. This 2009 declaration concluded that several greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health and welfare, which meant they could be regulated as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The endangerment finding followed the analysis of decades of research and the review of more than 380,000 public comments. Last week the Department of Energy put out a report rebutting the endangerment finding. The agency said the report offers a 'critical assessment of the conventional narrative on climate change.' Indeed, the report appears to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change across the board. The report argues that CO 2 -induced warming 'appears to be less damaging economically than commonly believed' and that U.S. policy actions to curb global climate change will have 'undetectably small' impacts while potentially causing economic harm. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who announced the agency's proposal to rescind the endangerment finding at an auto dealership in Indiana, claimed the move could save an estimated $54 billion annually, but experts are pushing back. Rachel Cleetus, a policy analyst and economist at the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Washington Post that the EPA's proposal contained 'fringe arguments' that 'go against the established science.' Scott Saleska, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, told the Associated Press that 'to repeal the endangerment finding now would be like a driver who is speeding towards a cliff taking his foot off the brake and instead pressing the accelerator.' The proposal won't be finalized immediately. There will first be a public comment period, so we'll keep you posted on the details of that. Now let's move on to some news you can use: a study published last Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine suggests that picking up your walking pace for just 15 minutes a day could help you live longer. The new research uses data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, which enrolled about 85,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 from 2002 to 2009. Researchers included data from 79,856 of the study participants, the majority of whom were from low-income populations. Study subjects had reported the average amount of time they spent walking each day and offered estimates for how much of that time they spent walking slowly (walking around at work, walking a dog or lightly exercising, for example) versus walking fast (such as climbing stairs, exercising, or walking briskly). The researchers then cross-referenced their study subject list with the National Death Index to track the participants' mortality through the end of 2022. The team found that walking quickly for just 15 minutes each day was associated with an almost 20 percent decrease in mortality. Three hours of slow walking a day was associated with a 4 percent reduction. Of course, any amount or type of movement is good for you, so don't be discouraged if you're not power walking on a daily basis. But if you're looking for a cheap (dare I say it, even free) and relatively accessible way to improve your cardiovascular health, consider getting a quick walk in—maybe while listening to Science Quickly? I mean, it's right there in the name. We'll end with a fun story about potatoes—and also tomatoes. Speaking personally, even though I know both of those edibles are technically nightshades, I don't otherwise lump them together (unless I'm eating french fries and ketchup, obviously). But a study published last Thursday in the journal Cell suggests that potatoes and tomatoes go way back. Scientists already knew that potatoes were closely related to a group of plants native to Chile, but while they're genetically quite similar, those tater relatives don't actually produce tubers, which is kinda what makes a potato a potato. According to a new analysis of genomes from 450 cultivated potatoes and 56 wild potato species, modern spuds may exist because of an ancient hybridization event between those tuberless plants, called Etuberosum, and the tomato. Etuberosum and tomatoes diverged from a common ancestor a whole 14 million years ago, according to the researchers, which isn't surprising if you've eaten both tomatoes and potatoes. But the new study suggests that they interbred some five million years after the big split. The researchers say potatoes got their SP6A gene—which is apparently what signals them to produce tubers—from their tomato roots, so to speak, while their IT1 gene—which is involved in controlling the growth of underground stems—[came] from the Etuberosum side. Both parents were crucial for producing the starchy lumps we know and love today. That's all for this week's science news roundup. We'll be back on Wednesday to talk about why NASA's future may be in peril. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
