August 1, 2025 • 25 mins
On this episode we look at the tsunamis that weren't from the Russian megaquake, and which dog breeds are super super hungry all the time.
• Earthquake occurred in the Kural Kamchatka subduction zone where the Pacific plate slides under the Okhotsk plate at 75mm per year
• Logarithmic earthquake scales mean each magnitude increase represents 10x more energy
• Despite the earthquake's strength, the rupture didn't reach the seafloor, limiting tsunami development
• Hawaiian and California coasts saw modest waves of 1-1.5 meters, far less than feared
• Historical tsunamis like the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster (227,000+ deaths) demonstrate the potential danger
• Texas A&M study of 15,000 dog owners reveals which breeds have highest "food motivation scores"
• Sporting breeds like Labs and Golden Retrievers are 10% more likely to overeat than mixed breeds
• Hound breeds (beagles, dachshunds) follow at 5.3% higher likelihood
• City dogs and those in multi-dog households more prone to weight issues
• Maintaining healthy dog weight reduces risks of diabetes, arthritis, and skin disease
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zukoski.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Chris Zukoski .
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're the pet parents of Bunsen, beaker, bernoulli
and Ginger.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You've come to the right spot, so put on your
safety glasses and hold on toyour tail.
This is the Science Podcast.
Hello and welcome back to theScience Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode 23 of seasonseven.
Chris, the weather turnedaround.
Are you happy with the smokeand hot temperatures?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yes, jason, it was 30 degrees outside today, 30
degrees Celsius, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, for Alberta that's hot.
That's about 86 Fahrenheit.
I know for some of our friendssouth of us in the States who
are from the hotter States andyou might get up to 100, and
this means nothing to you.
It was hot today, it was hotyesterday.
In fact, it's supposed to behot for a week.
So the Albertans that like thehot weather are basking and the
(01:20):
Albertans that wish for coolertemperatures, like me, are very
sad.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So you're sad about the weather.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, it's too hot.
We went on a walk today and itwas annoyingly sweaty.
I like to go on a walk with ahoodie and there's a light
drizzle in the air.
You can see your breath.
That's the best kind of weatherto go for a walk.
I beg to differ, sadly, thesummer's half over, chris.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
we've got only about less than a month because we go
back in late august, we don't goback in september, any big
plans no, we, we do have plans,but it has to do with the munson
and beaker and bernoullistuffies that are coming and the
pre-sale that we did with thebernoulli stuffy we're going to
(02:04):
get that ready when the stuffiescome are coming and the
pre-sale that we did with theBernoulli stuffy we're going to
get that ready when the stuffiescome in.
And then also shipping outthings to our customers and
writing the finishing the bookTexan Bunsen 4, which we've been
working really hard on.
So we've got those projects.
But we do have some plans, likemaybe to go up to or go down to
the mountains.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, we haven't been paddleboarding yet and I'm
really missing it, so I'd liketo go.
Okay, we've only got twoarticles.
It's been a busy week so it'sgoing to be a shorter show.
Today, we're going to betalking about the earthquake
that happened off the coast ofRussia.
It was a massive earthquakewith tsunami warnings all across
the Pacific.
That didn't amount to much.
(02:47):
Why did that massive earthquakenot cause more damage?
And in pet science, we're goingto be talking about the breeds
that maybe overeat the most.
There's no time like sciencetime.
This week in science news,let's chat about the big
earthquake and how the scarytsunamis that were potentially a
(03:09):
problem never materialized.
Chris, did you hear the newswhen the earthquake happened a
couple days ago?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, I sure did.
I was staying tuned to theinformation that was coming out
because previous earthquakeshave caused massive tsunamis
that have caused a lot of damageand loss of life, and so I was
concerned that people would beable to get to higher ground and
be safe.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, it was definitely on like the social
media people trying to get tohigher ground in Hawaii and they
were gridlocked because Hawaiiwas first in line to get hit by
that tsunami and then the wholewestern coast of Canada and the
United States also.
They were told to be careful.
We were just in Uculit andTofino a couple weeks ago.
(03:56):
That would have been us rightBecause we were on the western
side of Vancouver Island, rightin line for a specific tsunami.
Other notable tsunamis thathave happened in the last little
while probably the worst onehappened in 2004.
That was the Indian Oceantsunami.
There was a huge magnitude,9.1-ish, 9.3 earthquake off the
(04:20):
coast of Sumatra and thattsunami just came in and just
took out huge swaths ofIndonesia and Sri Lanka and
India on the coasts, evenThailand.
I think I'm just reading herethat like over 200,000 people
died from that tsunami, which ishard to wrap your head around
227,000 plus across 14 countries, is the estimated death toll of
(04:46):
that earthquake.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And we should talk about earthquakes being on the
logarithmic scale, so as theyjump up, they're jumping up by
powers of 10.
Yeah, so if you think about it,it's oh, it just seemed a
little bit more magnitude.
Actually, because of thelogarithmic scale, it's
considerable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
When I teach that in school, chris, I use think about
you punching a bag, likeeverybody can think about
punching or kicking right.
And then I say now think aboutpunching 10 times harder, Think
about punching, you're justgoing to punch.
Now think about punching 10times harder, because when you
say something's 10 timesstronger, that's hard to wrap
(05:29):
your head around.
But if you think aboutsomething like punching or
running, like thinking, butthink about running and now run
10 times faster, it makes itmore real for the kids.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up another really
awful tsunami that happenedprobably the most recent one was
off the coast of japan.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquakehappened off the coast of honshu
and a massive tsunami, 40meters high, swept in and killed
18,500 people.
(06:07):
And, of course, if you arefollowing any of this geographic
, if you're following any ofthis earthquake stuff, you would
remember that's what knockedout the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant and thatcaused the meltdown.
So that was a big deal duringthat time.
I remember when that happenedbecause a japanese exchange
program at our school wascanceled because it happened and
(06:30):
they were going to go, like ina couple weeks, because they
usually go at spring break, andthat would have been right
around.
When this happened in march of2011.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, so that would have been an area no longer
advised to go to.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
No, it was a rough go for everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
For sure, jason.
This quake occurred insomething called subduction zone
, where two plates are rubbingtogether.
The Pacific plate was slidingunder another plate called the
Okhotsk plate.
They're doing that at about 75millimeters per year, and this
occurred in a subduction zonecalled the kural kam chatka
(07:12):
subduction zone, and that'sabout 21 kilometers deep now.
These subduction zones areactually notorious for producing
massive quakes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And that's why it happened.
Now, the angle of subduction isshallow, which creates optimal
slipping conditions for thosemegathrust earthquakes, and in
that area it's like anearthquake factory.
It's a region with a history oflarge quakes.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Okay, If you think about massive slabs of earthless
, unfathomable weights, and oneis just slowly sliding under the
other, and they do itrelatively at a constant pace,
but sometimes they get stuck andthat pressure builds up and the
(08:03):
mega thrust means just the oneshoots a little bit forward
under the other, one that causesjust horrific earthquakes.
Hours after this quake, though,this volcano began erupting, so
like it created such acommotion, and the nearby
volcano blew up.
It is unclear if the earthquakedirectly triggered the eruption
(08:26):
, but I know historically notall earthquakes trigger
eruptions, but it wasn'terupting and then it just
started to.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That seems suspicious there was ongoing activity
already present in the in thevolcano so it is difficult to
establish a clear cause-effectrelationship.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Ship, but it's erupting now those subjects,
those subduction zones,basically, as they thrust one
under the other.
That causes the sea floor tobuckle.
It lifts the sea floor,displacing water, and that's
what triggers these tsunamis.
There's this thing called thehypocenter.
(09:06):
That's your, that's theearthquake origin point and it
was pretty shallow and thatincreases the tsunami potential.
And basically because thecenter, the earthquake origin
point, is closer to the surface,so there's more buckling, but
in this case the rupture likelydidn't reach the ocean floor.
That saved so many people.
(09:27):
It made the quake lesseffective at displacing water.
So, even though the hypocenterwas in a good position to create
like a horrific tsunami, itjust didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But there were reported tsunami impacts as a
result of the Indian Oceantsunami.
A lot of warning systems havebeen put into place and there
were tsunami impacts.
So waves of about three to fivemeters hit the Kamchatka's
coast and Hawaii actually sawwaves up to one and a half
(10:07):
meters about six hours later.
Hawaii actually saw waves up toone and a half meters about six
hours later.
As you said, california partsof California reported meter
high waves the next morning andthose warnings and advisories
did trigger mass evacuationsacross the Pacific and they were
either lifted or downgraded asthe wave heights were smaller
(10:31):
than what everybody feared.
But even small tsunami waveshave to be taken seriously
because they are unpredictableand very dangerous potentially.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
A meter high wave.
If it crashes on the shoreline,no big deal, but a meter and a
half wave that travels into town.
That is the unpredictability ofit.
That's super dangerous becauseyou have a whole bunch of water
where they're really.
Water shouldn't be out in theocean right at the shoreline.
Maybe some surfer dudes off thecoast of california got hit
(11:07):
some nice waves, but if that'sin the middle of Los Angeles
you've got a whole schwack ofproblems.
As mentioned, when theearthquake happened, different
geologists were talking aboutlike this had the potential to
be very bad for everybody aroundthe coasts, just like it was
with the Indian earthquake.
(11:27):
It wasn't maybe as powerful asa quake, but it was still very
strong and the main reason itjust didn't rupture all the way
to the seafloor.
So the subduction zone happeneddeep under the earth and that
ripple effect where it causedthe buckling of the seafloor.
That didn't happen.
It happened just-.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Absolutely, but we can't discount aftershocks and
future risks because the tsunamisize depends on the water.
It happened just in the weekfollowing the earthquake in
Russia and there's always asmall chance that a big quake
(12:13):
could be followed by even alarger one.
But the risk of a larger quakediminishes with time and will
typically drop to about 5%within a week.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So we're almost at that rate.
Now it's almost a week away.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
But the event is a reminder of the power of the
subduction zones globally.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, every time we go out to the coast either with
the kids with the Banfield tripor, like lately, when we went in
early July you see those signslike tsunami evacuation routes.
There's like a stick mangetting just wrecked by a
massive wave or he's runningaway from it or something.
There's like arrows to higherground, because if you're on the
(12:53):
beach and the sirens go off,you got to get out of Dodge, you
got to get to higher ground ifone of those tsunamis come at
you and you have to move quicklywhen that happens, the higher
ground you get, the greaterchance you are to survive.
With the Indian Ocean disaster,a lot of people had zero
warning and they just got smokedby that tsunami that came in.
(13:15):
You're right.
Yeah, it's good to alwaysreflect on mistakes in the past
and how this one wasn't bad, butit could have been worse.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, so always be prepared.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Guess.
So All right, that's sciencenews for this week.
This week in pet science, let'stalk about dog breeds that like
to eat a lot.
All of our dogs, I want to say,enjoy eating.
They are very excited aboutsupper.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
They're food motivated.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
We do have food motivated dogs.
I have hung out with my friendwith Husky, and her Husky was
like out with my friend withhusky, and her husky was like no
, I'm not going to do whateveryou want, because I want to do
what I want, whereas beaker isvery excited to eat food to
please you.
And bernoulli oh my goodness,he's what.
(14:03):
There's a treat.
I'm right there.
And even today on our walk Icalled bernoulli over, who came,
also Bunsen, and he sat downand looked expectantly for a
treat because he loves food too.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So some dogs, of course, love food and if you
give them half a chance they'lleat way too much food, like me
at a buffet.
If you give me half a chance ata buffet, I'm gonna make sure I
get my money's worth and feelsuper sick after it.
I'm trying to think when wasthe last time we went to a
buffet years ago?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
yes, we went to a buffet.
You went and annalise and I didnot.
And then your little nephewsneezed on the buffet food and
ran away and ran away, so sorryeveryone we should have done a
little bit of a spoiler alertthat the buffet is a bit
(15:01):
disgusting when kids sneeze onit god.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Okay.
This study comes to us from texA&M University researchers, and
they surveyed over 15,000 dogowners about their pet eating
behavior, so that's a decentsample size for a pet study.
They also combined ownersurveys with veterinary reports
and they evaluated each dog'sbody condition.
(15:30):
So what's going on with all ofthis data here?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Right.
So by taking those two piecesof data, they developed a food
motivation score based on foodresponsiveness, interest in food
, pickiness and tendency to feelfull.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
If I was a dog, I would have a very high food
motivation score.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You would Jason Food responsiveness high Interesting
food always Pickiness low.
No low pickiness.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, tendency to feel full never.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Never.
So when they put that together,they came up with a high food
motivation score, and that means, or that indicates, a dog that
is highly interested in food andis more likely to be overweight
according to the veterinarian'sbody condition assessment,
which includes feeling the ribcage of a dog as part of that
(16:28):
assessment that body conditionassessment.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So here are some of the fun statistics.
The sporting breeds LabradorRetrievers, golden Retrievers,
spaniels, setters and Pointers.
These were dogs that were 10%more likely to have high food
motivation scores versus mixedbreeds, and these were the most
(16:51):
commonly high scoring group.
So that's Golden Retrievers,that's Beaker and Callan and
Callan.
Of course she got a littlepudgy occasionally in her time.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
We were not as good with food with her, no.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
but also for like months, Duncan was giving her
double breakfast so she wasgetting fed three times a day
for months, until we figured itout and then we're like whoa,
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
you are a box you're a square.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, I miss alan.
She was a sweetie she was sucha sweet dog then we had the
hound breed, so those aregreyhounds, dashhhounds, beagles
and basset hounds.
They were 5.3% more likely tohave high food emission, high
food motivation scores and,surprisingly, the non-sporting
breeds were the least likely tohave high food motivation scores
(17:46):
compared to mixed breeds.
Those are poodles, bulldogs,dalmatians and terriers.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, they were 4.1% less likely to have high food
motivation scores.
Have you ever seen a chonkyDalmatian?
I've never seen.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I've seen in my life.
I've seen one single Dalmatianlike in real life.
They are just rare dogs, chris.
Like around here, like when wasthe last time, I think, we saw
one Dalmatian together one time?
And we're like oh my God, it'sDalmatian.
You never see them.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, fiona used to have a roommate and his fiance
had a Dalmatian.
And so we actually havepictures of, I think, bunsen
with Macy.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh, I know, I don't think I ever met Macy.
I think that was you.
That was something you got tosee bulldogs also I'm trying to
think of.
I've seen very few bulldogs.
It's just not a popular thingaround where we live, but we're
also not going to the dog parkevery day no, that's true.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
The most important thing is the health risks of
having an overweight dog,because overweight dogs are at a
greater risk for diabetes,arthritis, skin disease and they
have an overall poor or lessquality of life than a dog with
a healthy weight.
That's maintained.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Some other risk factors of having an overweight
dog are the size.
So larger dogs are more likelyto score high on food motivation
scores than small dogs, and Ithought that was cool to know
where they live.
City-dwelling dogs are moreprone to be overweight than
rural dogs and dogs in multi-doghouseholds are more likely to
(19:39):
be overweight than those insingle-dog homes.
Perhaps in multi-dog householdsare more likely to be
overweight than those in singledog homes.
Perhaps in multi-dog homes youjust are able to give each dog
less individual attention.
Maybe you just have one giantbowl of food that they free feed
from.
That was more common inmulti-dog houses.
Or the dog could just be boreddue to less time for exercise
(20:01):
and enrichment.
I can see that, but I think wegive all of our dogs we try to
give all of our dogs equalattention.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Oh, for sure we do, and we feed them separately
because Beaker loves to stealother people, other dogs food.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
She'll steal everybody's food.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
She is notorious for that and she's fast and she is
so quick.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And she's little, so she doesn't get as much food as
the other two.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No, she gets less food, which, because she is
little, that should besufficient for her.
But in terms of exercise, forsure we take them out on walks
and even with Bunsen being oldernow and he has to be on leashed
walks, he's still able to getout there and walk around yeah,
we still have to prioritize thatfor him yeah, and the walks
(20:50):
that the dogs do?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
where we take them for walks, they're not.
It's not flat ground, like it'sup hills and up down run around
yeah and then there's evenswimming in it, jason.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
They are getting all of their exercise groups, like
food groups, running, jumping,swimming just no cycling no
cycling yeah, bernoulli wouldn'tbe able to do a triathlon,
triathlon, very well no
Speaker 1 (21:17):
this leads us to some really interesting
recommendations from the studyright, or takeaways if you will.
Some breeds will probablyrequire stricter feeding
guidelines than others.
If you leave a big bowl of foodout and you have a Labrador
retriever and you expect it onlyto eat like two cups of food a
day, it might just eat all thefood, so that might be a bad
(21:38):
idea.
But if you have one of thosedogs that aren't as food
motivated, like a I don't know,like you said, a dalmatian maybe
it would only take a couplebites a day.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I have no idea there are families who talk about
having their dogs free feed andI just look at them and I say
that is foreign to us, because Iknow if the food is there they
would eat it all.
Ginger would eat all of herfood.
She stuffs her arm in to thefeeder to get more food.
(22:10):
She also will go into thepantry and try and get her bag
down and take chunks out of itwith her teeth to try and get
more food out of it.
She is highly food motivated.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Okay If your dog does need to lose a little bit of
weight.
Remember that weight loss plansfail if the owner and what the
vet is suggesting.
If your two plans aren'taligned, then you don't follow
feeding or exercise routinesconsistently.
So they do suggest feeding yourdogs at exactly the same time
(22:43):
every day and if your dog'sputting on a little bit of
weight, just cut back what theyget fed.
And then sometimes there'sthose sneaky things that dogs
get throughout the day.
If you're giving your dog halfa sandwich every lunch, or what
was Callan getting from Duncan?
Also mini wheats, like he wouldgive her tons of mini wheats
every day.
(23:03):
So that's why she was chunky.
She was getting doublebreakfasts and some of Duncan's
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, exactly, consult with your vet because
you can create a customized dietplan for your dog, you can get
appropriate exercise routinesand you know what Ongoing
monitoring and support.
They'll be your biggestcheerleader for sure, if your
dog's weight goes down.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We would love to know , let us know, like in the
comments of the show, if you'vegot a breed of dog that is like
hungry all the time.
Do you have a golden retrieveror Labrador retriever that's
hungry, hungry hippos, likeBeaker is, or do you have one
that could take or leave food?
That would be cool to know.
But that's Pet Science for thisweek.
That's it for this week's show.
(23:50):
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
And a shout out to all the TopDogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon community, the Paw Pack.
You can sign up in our shownotes.
All right, chris, let's hearthose names that are part of the
top dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Amelia Fettig Rhi Oda , carol Haino, jennifer Challen,
linnea Janik Karen Chronister,vicky Otero, Christy Walker,
sarah Bram, wendy, diane Masonand Luke Helen Chin, elizabeth
Bourgeois, marianne McNally,katherine Jordan, shelley Smith,
laura Steffensen, tracyLeinbach, anne Uchida, heather
(24:29):
Burback, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Brimer, mary Rader, biancaHyde, Andrew Lin, brenda Clark,
brianne Hawes, peggy McKeel,holly Burge, kathy Zerker, susan
Wagner and Liz Button.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
For science, empathy and cuteness.
Hello science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zukoski.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Chris Zukoski .
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're the pet parents of Bunsen, beaker, bernoulli
and Ginger.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You've come to the right spot, so put on your
safety glasses and hold on toyour tail.
This is the Science Podcast.
Hello and welcome back to theScience Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode 23 of seasonseven.
Chris, the weather turnedaround.
Are you happy with the smokeand hot temperatures?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yes, jason, it was 30 degrees outside today, 30
degrees Celsius, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, for Alberta that's hot.
That's about 86 Fahrenheit.
I know for some of our friendssouth of us in the States who
are from the hotter States andyou might get up to 100, and
this means nothing to you.
It was hot today, it was hotyesterday.
In fact, it's supposed to behot for a week.
So the Albertans that like thehot weather are basking and the
(01:20):
Albertans that wish for coolertemperatures, like me, are very
sad.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So you're sad about the weather.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, it's too hot.
We went on a walk today and itwas annoyingly sweaty.
I like to go on a walk with ahoodie and there's a light
drizzle in the air.
You can see your breath.
That's the best kind of weatherto go for a walk.
I beg to differ, sadly, thesummer's half over, chris.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
we've got only about less than a month because we go
back in late august, we don't goback in september, any big
plans no, we, we do have plans,but it has to do with the munson
and beaker and bernoullistuffies that are coming and the
pre-sale that we did with thebernoulli stuffy we're going to
(02:04):
get that ready when the stuffiescome are coming and the
pre-sale that we did with theBernoulli stuffy we're going to
get that ready when the stuffiescome in.
And then also shipping outthings to our customers and
writing the finishing the bookTexan Bunsen 4, which we've been
working really hard on.
So we've got those projects.
But we do have some plans, likemaybe to go up to or go down to
the mountains.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, we haven't been paddleboarding yet and I'm
really missing it, so I'd liketo go.
Okay, we've only got twoarticles.
It's been a busy week so it'sgoing to be a shorter show.
Today, we're going to betalking about the earthquake
that happened off the coast ofRussia.
It was a massive earthquakewith tsunami warnings all across
the Pacific.
That didn't amount to much.
(02:47):
Why did that massive earthquakenot cause more damage?
And in pet science, we're goingto be talking about the breeds
that maybe overeat the most.
There's no time like sciencetime.
This week in science news,let's chat about the big
earthquake and how the scarytsunamis that were potentially a
(03:09):
problem never materialized.
Chris, did you hear the newswhen the earthquake happened a
couple days ago?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, I sure did.
I was staying tuned to theinformation that was coming out
because previous earthquakeshave caused massive tsunamis
that have caused a lot of damageand loss of life, and so I was
concerned that people would beable to get to higher ground and
be safe.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, it was definitely on like the social
media people trying to get tohigher ground in Hawaii and they
were gridlocked because Hawaiiwas first in line to get hit by
that tsunami and then the wholewestern coast of Canada and the
United States also.
They were told to be careful.
We were just in Uculit andTofino a couple weeks ago.
(03:56):
That would have been us rightBecause we were on the western
side of Vancouver Island, rightin line for a specific tsunami.
Other notable tsunamis thathave happened in the last little
while probably the worst onehappened in 2004.
That was the Indian Oceantsunami.
There was a huge magnitude,9.1-ish, 9.3 earthquake off the
(04:20):
coast of Sumatra and thattsunami just came in and just
took out huge swaths ofIndonesia and Sri Lanka and
India on the coasts, evenThailand.
I think I'm just reading herethat like over 200,000 people
died from that tsunami, which ishard to wrap your head around
227,000 plus across 14 countries, is the estimated death toll of
(04:46):
that earthquake.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And we should talk about earthquakes being on the
logarithmic scale, so as theyjump up, they're jumping up by
powers of 10.
Yeah, so if you think about it,it's oh, it just seemed a
little bit more magnitude.
Actually, because of thelogarithmic scale, it's
considerable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
When I teach that in school, chris, I use think about
you punching a bag, likeeverybody can think about
punching or kicking right.
And then I say now think aboutpunching 10 times harder, Think
about punching, you're justgoing to punch.
Now think about punching 10times harder, because when you
say something's 10 timesstronger, that's hard to wrap
(05:29):
your head around.
But if you think aboutsomething like punching or
running, like thinking, butthink about running and now run
10 times faster, it makes itmore real for the kids.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up another really
awful tsunami that happenedprobably the most recent one was
off the coast of japan.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquakehappened off the coast of honshu
and a massive tsunami, 40meters high, swept in and killed
18,500 people.
(06:07):
And, of course, if you arefollowing any of this geographic
, if you're following any ofthis earthquake stuff, you would
remember that's what knockedout the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant and thatcaused the meltdown.
So that was a big deal duringthat time.
I remember when that happenedbecause a japanese exchange
program at our school wascanceled because it happened and
(06:30):
they were going to go, like ina couple weeks, because they
usually go at spring break, andthat would have been right
around.
When this happened in march of2011.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, so that would have been an area no longer
advised to go to.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
No, it was a rough go for everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
For sure, jason.
This quake occurred insomething called subduction zone
, where two plates are rubbingtogether.
The Pacific plate was slidingunder another plate called the
Okhotsk plate.
They're doing that at about 75millimeters per year, and this
occurred in a subduction zonecalled the kural kam chatka
(07:12):
subduction zone, and that'sabout 21 kilometers deep now.
These subduction zones areactually notorious for producing
massive quakes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And that's why it happened.
Now, the angle of subduction isshallow, which creates optimal
slipping conditions for thosemegathrust earthquakes, and in
that area it's like anearthquake factory.
It's a region with a history oflarge quakes.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Okay, If you think about massive slabs of earthless
, unfathomable weights, and oneis just slowly sliding under the
other, and they do itrelatively at a constant pace,
but sometimes they get stuck andthat pressure builds up and the
(08:03):
mega thrust means just the oneshoots a little bit forward
under the other, one that causesjust horrific earthquakes.
Hours after this quake, though,this volcano began erupting, so
like it created such acommotion, and the nearby
volcano blew up.
It is unclear if the earthquakedirectly triggered the eruption
(08:26):
, but I know historically notall earthquakes trigger
eruptions, but it wasn'terupting and then it just
started to.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That seems suspicious there was ongoing activity
already present in the in thevolcano so it is difficult to
establish a clear cause-effectrelationship.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Ship, but it's erupting now those subjects,
those subduction zones,basically, as they thrust one
under the other.
That causes the sea floor tobuckle.
It lifts the sea floor,displacing water, and that's
what triggers these tsunamis.
There's this thing called thehypocenter.
(09:06):
That's your, that's theearthquake origin point and it
was pretty shallow and thatincreases the tsunami potential.
And basically because thecenter, the earthquake origin
point, is closer to the surface,so there's more buckling, but
in this case the rupture likelydidn't reach the ocean floor.
That saved so many people.
(09:27):
It made the quake lesseffective at displacing water.
So, even though the hypocenterwas in a good position to create
like a horrific tsunami, itjust didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But there were reported tsunami impacts as a
result of the Indian Oceantsunami.
A lot of warning systems havebeen put into place and there
were tsunami impacts.
So waves of about three to fivemeters hit the Kamchatka's
coast and Hawaii actually sawwaves up to one and a half
(10:07):
meters about six hours later.
Hawaii actually saw waves up toone and a half meters about six
hours later.
As you said, california partsof California reported meter
high waves the next morning andthose warnings and advisories
did trigger mass evacuationsacross the Pacific and they were
either lifted or downgraded asthe wave heights were smaller
(10:31):
than what everybody feared.
But even small tsunami waveshave to be taken seriously
because they are unpredictableand very dangerous potentially.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
A meter high wave.
If it crashes on the shoreline,no big deal, but a meter and a
half wave that travels into town.
That is the unpredictability ofit.
That's super dangerous becauseyou have a whole bunch of water
where they're really.
Water shouldn't be out in theocean right at the shoreline.
Maybe some surfer dudes off thecoast of california got hit
(11:07):
some nice waves, but if that'sin the middle of Los Angeles
you've got a whole schwack ofproblems.
As mentioned, when theearthquake happened, different
geologists were talking aboutlike this had the potential to
be very bad for everybody aroundthe coasts, just like it was
with the Indian earthquake.
(11:27):
It wasn't maybe as powerful asa quake, but it was still very
strong and the main reason itjust didn't rupture all the way
to the seafloor.
So the subduction zone happeneddeep under the earth and that
ripple effect where it causedthe buckling of the seafloor.
That didn't happen.
It happened just-.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Absolutely, but we can't discount aftershocks and
future risks because the tsunamisize depends on the water.
It happened just in the weekfollowing the earthquake in
Russia and there's always asmall chance that a big quake
(12:13):
could be followed by even alarger one.
But the risk of a larger quakediminishes with time and will
typically drop to about 5%within a week.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So we're almost at that rate.
Now it's almost a week away.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
But the event is a reminder of the power of the
subduction zones globally.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, every time we go out to the coast either with
the kids with the Banfield tripor, like lately, when we went in
early July you see those signslike tsunami evacuation routes.
There's like a stick mangetting just wrecked by a
massive wave or he's runningaway from it or something.
There's like arrows to higherground, because if you're on the
(12:53):
beach and the sirens go off,you got to get out of Dodge, you
got to get to higher ground ifone of those tsunamis come at
you and you have to move quicklywhen that happens, the higher
ground you get, the greaterchance you are to survive.
With the Indian Ocean disaster,a lot of people had zero
warning and they just got smokedby that tsunami that came in.
(13:15):
You're right.
Yeah, it's good to alwaysreflect on mistakes in the past
and how this one wasn't bad, butit could have been worse.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, so always be prepared.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Guess.
So All right, that's sciencenews for this week.
This week in pet science, let'stalk about dog breeds that like
to eat a lot.
All of our dogs, I want to say,enjoy eating.
They are very excited aboutsupper.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
They're food motivated.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
We do have food motivated dogs.
I have hung out with my friendwith Husky, and her Husky was
like out with my friend withhusky, and her husky was like no
, I'm not going to do whateveryou want, because I want to do
what I want, whereas beaker isvery excited to eat food to
please you.
And bernoulli oh my goodness,he's what.
(14:03):
There's a treat.
I'm right there.
And even today on our walk Icalled bernoulli over, who came,
also Bunsen, and he sat downand looked expectantly for a
treat because he loves food too.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So some dogs, of course, love food and if you
give them half a chance they'lleat way too much food, like me
at a buffet.
If you give me half a chance ata buffet, I'm gonna make sure I
get my money's worth and feelsuper sick after it.
I'm trying to think when wasthe last time we went to a
buffet years ago?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
yes, we went to a buffet.
You went and annalise and I didnot.
And then your little nephewsneezed on the buffet food and
ran away and ran away, so sorryeveryone we should have done a
little bit of a spoiler alertthat the buffet is a bit
(15:01):
disgusting when kids sneeze onit god.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Okay.
This study comes to us from texA&M University researchers, and
they surveyed over 15,000 dogowners about their pet eating
behavior, so that's a decentsample size for a pet study.
They also combined ownersurveys with veterinary reports
and they evaluated each dog'sbody condition.
(15:30):
So what's going on with all ofthis data here?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Right.
So by taking those two piecesof data, they developed a food
motivation score based on foodresponsiveness, interest in food
, pickiness and tendency to feelfull.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
If I was a dog, I would have a very high food
motivation score.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You would Jason Food responsiveness high Interesting
food always Pickiness low.
No low pickiness.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, tendency to feel full never.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Never.
So when they put that together,they came up with a high food
motivation score, and that means, or that indicates, a dog that
is highly interested in food andis more likely to be overweight
according to the veterinarian'sbody condition assessment,
which includes feeling the ribcage of a dog as part of that
(16:28):
assessment that body conditionassessment.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So here are some of the fun statistics.
The sporting breeds LabradorRetrievers, golden Retrievers,
spaniels, setters and Pointers.
These were dogs that were 10%more likely to have high food
motivation scores versus mixedbreeds, and these were the most
(16:51):
commonly high scoring group.
So that's Golden Retrievers,that's Beaker and Callan and
Callan.
Of course she got a littlepudgy occasionally in her time.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
We were not as good with food with her, no.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
but also for like months, Duncan was giving her
double breakfast so she wasgetting fed three times a day
for months, until we figured itout and then we're like whoa,
what's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
you are a box you're a square.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, I miss alan.
She was a sweetie she was sucha sweet dog then we had the
hound breed, so those aregreyhounds, dashhhounds, beagles
and basset hounds.
They were 5.3% more likely tohave high food emission, high
food motivation scores and,surprisingly, the non-sporting
breeds were the least likely tohave high food motivation scores
(17:46):
compared to mixed breeds.
Those are poodles, bulldogs,dalmatians and terriers.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, they were 4.1% less likely to have high food
motivation scores.
Have you ever seen a chonkyDalmatian?
I've never seen.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I've seen in my life.
I've seen one single Dalmatianlike in real life.
They are just rare dogs, chris.
Like around here, like when wasthe last time, I think, we saw
one Dalmatian together one time?
And we're like oh my God, it'sDalmatian.
You never see them.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, fiona used to have a roommate and his fiance
had a Dalmatian.
And so we actually havepictures of, I think, bunsen
with Macy.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh, I know, I don't think I ever met Macy.
I think that was you.
That was something you got tosee bulldogs also I'm trying to
think of.
I've seen very few bulldogs.
It's just not a popular thingaround where we live, but we're
also not going to the dog parkevery day no, that's true.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
The most important thing is the health risks of
having an overweight dog,because overweight dogs are at a
greater risk for diabetes,arthritis, skin disease and they
have an overall poor or lessquality of life than a dog with
a healthy weight.
That's maintained.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Some other risk factors of having an overweight
dog are the size.
So larger dogs are more likelyto score high on food motivation
scores than small dogs, and Ithought that was cool to know
where they live.
City-dwelling dogs are moreprone to be overweight than
rural dogs and dogs in multi-doghouseholds are more likely to
(19:39):
be overweight than those insingle-dog homes.
Perhaps in multi-dog householdsare more likely to be
overweight than those in singledog homes.
Perhaps in multi-dog homes youjust are able to give each dog
less individual attention.
Maybe you just have one giantbowl of food that they free feed
from.
That was more common inmulti-dog houses.
Or the dog could just be boreddue to less time for exercise
(20:01):
and enrichment.
I can see that, but I think wegive all of our dogs we try to
give all of our dogs equalattention.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Oh, for sure we do, and we feed them separately
because Beaker loves to stealother people, other dogs food.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
She'll steal everybody's food.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
She is notorious for that and she's fast and she is
so quick.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And she's little, so she doesn't get as much food as
the other two.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No, she gets less food, which, because she is
little, that should besufficient for her.
But in terms of exercise, forsure we take them out on walks
and even with Bunsen being oldernow and he has to be on leashed
walks, he's still able to getout there and walk around yeah,
we still have to prioritize thatfor him yeah, and the walks
(20:50):
that the dogs do?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
where we take them for walks, they're not.
It's not flat ground, like it'sup hills and up down run around
yeah and then there's evenswimming in it, jason.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
They are getting all of their exercise groups, like
food groups, running, jumping,swimming just no cycling no
cycling yeah, bernoulli wouldn'tbe able to do a triathlon,
triathlon, very well no
Speaker 1 (21:17):
this leads us to some really interesting
recommendations from the studyright, or takeaways if you will.
Some breeds will probablyrequire stricter feeding
guidelines than others.
If you leave a big bowl of foodout and you have a Labrador
retriever and you expect it onlyto eat like two cups of food a
day, it might just eat all thefood, so that might be a bad
(21:38):
idea.
But if you have one of thosedogs that aren't as food
motivated, like a I don't know,like you said, a dalmatian maybe
it would only take a couplebites a day.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I have no idea there are families who talk about
having their dogs free feed andI just look at them and I say
that is foreign to us, because Iknow if the food is there they
would eat it all.
Ginger would eat all of herfood.
She stuffs her arm in to thefeeder to get more food.
(22:10):
She also will go into thepantry and try and get her bag
down and take chunks out of itwith her teeth to try and get
more food out of it.
She is highly food motivated.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Okay If your dog does need to lose a little bit of
weight.
Remember that weight loss plansfail if the owner and what the
vet is suggesting.
If your two plans aren'taligned, then you don't follow
feeding or exercise routinesconsistently.
So they do suggest feeding yourdogs at exactly the same time
(22:43):
every day and if your dog'sputting on a little bit of
weight, just cut back what theyget fed.
And then sometimes there'sthose sneaky things that dogs
get throughout the day.
If you're giving your dog halfa sandwich every lunch, or what
was Callan getting from Duncan?
Also mini wheats, like he wouldgive her tons of mini wheats
every day.
(23:03):
So that's why she was chunky.
She was getting doublebreakfasts and some of Duncan's
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, exactly, consult with your vet because
you can create a customized dietplan for your dog, you can get
appropriate exercise routinesand you know what Ongoing
monitoring and support.
They'll be your biggestcheerleader for sure, if your
dog's weight goes down.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We would love to know , let us know, like in the
comments of the show, if you'vegot a breed of dog that is like
hungry all the time.
Do you have a golden retrieveror Labrador retriever that's
hungry, hungry hippos, likeBeaker is, or do you have one
that could take or leave food?
That would be cool to know.
But that's Pet Science for thisweek.
That's it for this week's show.
(23:50):
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
And a shout out to all the TopDogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon community, the Paw Pack.
You can sign up in our shownotes.
All right, chris, let's hearthose names that are part of the
top dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Amelia Fettig Rhi Oda , carol Haino, jennifer Challen,
linnea Janik Karen Chronister,vicky Otero, Christy Walker,
sarah Bram, wendy, diane Masonand Luke Helen Chin, elizabeth
Bourgeois, marianne McNally,katherine Jordan, shelley Smith,
laura Steffensen, tracyLeinbach, anne Uchida, heather
(24:29):
Burback, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Brimer, mary Rader, biancaHyde, Andrew Lin, brenda Clark,
brianne Hawes, peggy McKeel,holly Burge, kathy Zerker, susan
Wagner and Liz Button.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
For science, empathy and cuteness.
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