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Science Quickly

Russia’s Earthquake, Wonders of Walking and Surprising Plant Genetics

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Andrea Thompson, Scientific American’s senior sustainability editor, to discuss the massive Russian earthquake and the reason it produced such relatively minor tsunami waves. Plus, we discuss the lowdown on the Environmental Protection Agency’s move to repeal of the “endangerment finding,” the advantages of a brisk stroll and an ancient linkup that led to a farmer’s market favorite. Recommended reading: Tsunami Warnings Issued after Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake Strikes off Russian Coast Russia’s 8.8 Earthquake Is One of the Strongest Ever Recorded Why the Russian Earthquake Didn’t Cause a Huge Tsunami The Potato’s Mysterious Family Tree Revealed—And It Includes Tomatoes E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Why are businesses like HelloVet choosing Apple products and services?

0:05.1

So we started the business two years ago.

0:07.2

We had a few people who were used to PCs and this was their first foray into Macs.

0:12.5

But it's been super smooth getting everyone onto those devices and everyone seems really, really happy.

0:18.0

Find out how Mac can help you run and grow your business at Apple.com forward slash

0:23.6

HelloVet.

0:36.4

Happy Monday listeners and happy August.

0:39.6

For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.

0:49.0

Let's kick off the month with a quick roundup of some of the latest news in science.

0:54.1

First, we have Andrea Thompson,

0:56.1

senior news editor for sustainability at Scientific American, to tell us about last week's earthquake

1:01.3

and the resulting tsunami waves. Last Tuesday, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast

1:08.5

of Russia's Kentucky Peninsula in a subduction zone where the

1:13.3

Pacific plate is plunging below part of the North American plate. And subduction zones are

1:18.6

typically where you'd see tsunamis be generated because you have a big shift in the earth

1:25.2

that sort of provides a big push to the water.

1:28.2

And this area actually did produce a really big tsunami back in 1952 when there was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

1:36.9

So sort of tsunami alerts, warnings, advisories were released kind of all around the Pacific.

1:42.1

So there were some in Japan, some in Russia,

1:45.5

Hawaii, all along sort of the North American coastline, you know, from the allusions down

1:50.8

to Southern California, also in South America. And some of this is because we generate warnings

1:57.7

if there is the likelihood of tsunami waves arriving and there is the possibility

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