The Earthquake Felt from Seattle to Moscow; A Deep Focus Earthquake

In 2013, a powerful earthquake struck deep in the upper mantle, which would go on to cause shaking as far away as Seattle, Moscow, and even Milan. This event, registering in as a magnitude 8.3, represented the largest known example of an unusual phenomena referred to as a “deep focus“ earthquake. Potentially billions of people felt this event, which was likely caused due to deep changes of a gemstone known as peridot (the gem form of olivine). Thumbnail Photo Credit: This work “Kamchatka59“, is a derivative of a photo (resized, cropped, text overlay, GeologyHub graphics overlay (the image border, the red red circular earthquake icon, & the GeologyHub logo)) from “Volcano Koryaksky“, by: kuhnmi, 2014, Posted on Flickr, Flickr account link: @N05/, Photo link: @N05/24231533812, CC BY 2.0. “Kamchatka59“ is used & licensed under CC BY 2.0 by If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: ) (YouTube membership: ) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: ) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: ) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under “fair use“. If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at tccatron@ and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video’s thumbnail image: CC BY 2.0: CC BY 4.0: Sources/Citations: [1] hebrov, Victor & Chebrov, Danila & Abubakirov, Iskander & Chebrova, Anastasiya & Gusev, Alexander & Guseva, Evgeniia & Droznin, D. & Droznina, S. & Ivanova, E. & Kravchenko, N.M. & Kugaenko, Yu & Lander, Alexander & Matveenko, Evgeniy & Mitushkina, s & Ototuk, Dmitry & Pavlov, V. & Raevskaya, A. & Saltykov, V. & Skorkina, Anna & Titkov, N.. (2016). Notable events of Kamchatka in 2013. [2] Levitas, V.I. Resolving puzzles of the phase-transformation-based mechanism of the strong deep-focus earthquake. Nat Commun 13, 6291 (2022). , CC BY 4.0 [3] Figure from “Physical Geology“, 9.1 Understanding Earth through Seismology, by: Steven Earle; Earle, Steven; and Earle, Steven, Chapter link: , Photo link: , CC BY 4.0. [4] U.S. Geological Survey [5] Mindat, [6] Mindat, Forsterite, [7] Mindat, Fayalite, [8] Mindat, Wadsleyite, [9] Mindat, Ringwoodite, [10] O’Keeffe, M., Hyde, B. Why olivine transforms to spinel at high pressure. Nature 293, 727–728 (1981). 0:00 A Major Earthquake 1:56 P-Wave Velocity 3:02 Plate Subduction 3:27 Olivine 3:57 An Implosion Occurs