Deepest quake in recorded history has struck the Philippines

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves" - Luke 21:25

By Eli J. Obligacion, Marinduque Rising

During the past few days I've been monitoring a warning, as my Facebook timeline will show, that an M7.9 earthquake will strike the Philippines.

Now it can be told. The largest deep earthquake ever recorded in world history is not the one that happened off the coast of Russia in May 2013. It is now the M7.2  (Phivolcs) - M7.3 (USGS) earthquake that struck off the coast of Sulu on Wednesday, January 11, 2017. It was felt at Intensity II in General Santos City.

Phivolcs measured the quake's depth at 625 kms, while USGS recorded it at depth of  612.7 kms, beating the 2013 Russian quake with magnitude 8.3 that occurred in the Sea of Okhost at a depth of 609 kms.

These temblors are a mystery to scientists, according to Live Science, because "seismologists don't understand how massive earthquakes can happen at such depths." That's deep within the Earth's mantle, the layer of hot plastic rock that sits below the crust.

It was the 2013 Russian quake that was considered the deepest
but the Philippine quake of 2017 beat that.

Of the 2013 Russian quake, Thorne Lay, a seismologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz said, "It's the biggest event we've ever seen. It looks so similar to shallow events, even though it's got 600 kilometers of rock on top of it. It's hard to understand how such an earthquake occurs at all under such huge pressure".

Such rupture apparently occurs at lightning speeds of roughly 9,000 mph (14,400 km.h).

From SpaceWeather.

Dutchinse's warning of the PH quake

More than a week ago, Michael Janitch a.k.a. Dutchsinse who has gained a a huge following on YouTube because of his daily earthquake studies and spot-on forecasts warned that an M7.9 would hit somewhere in the Philippines. His cursor, however, was pointing at northern Philippines.

On January 6 as Dutchsinse reviewed his earlier forecasts, he said he'd cancel the said warning "if nothing that large strikes within 24 hours". Then he opted not to cancel his warning, replacing it with a "watch", not wanting to repeat a recent mistake when a large quake occurred in the west coast of the US two days after he cancelled the warning.

The PH earthquake of Jan 11, 2017: Magnitude 7.3 at Depth of 612.7 kms. Screenshot from Dutchsinse

He was making a live feed on Jan. 10 (Jan 11 in PH), when the Philippine quake struck, immediately admitted he did not expect the quake to be that deep. "haven't seen anything like it for a long time" and apparently did not realize that it was a record quake. 

Dutchsinse at once announced that this kind of quake meant it will be followed by a shallow large earthquake, 1 to 2 magnitude larger. "This is big deal", he added, pointing to an area near Tokyo as possible location.

"Things are about to go bad", he said, and "volcanoes will be rumbling, too".

Where the Earth's mantle sits.

BPEarthwatch: It's the solar wind at incredible wind speeds

BPEarthwatch, another popular YouTube channel also expressed apprehension about the Philippine quake. "That (quake) tells us that the pressure is moving north... At 612 kms that energy is pushing upward. It's pushing at the bottom of the mantle, why? Because we've been getting the solar wind speeds at incredible speeds of 1.5-million miles an hour".

SOLAR WINDS: Artist's depiction of solar wind particles interacting with Earth's magnetosphere. Wikipedia

Indeed, experts are warning that solar winds could cause huge magnetic storms on Earth, drastically increasing the chances of gigantic tremors across the continent.

Numerous images of large Earth-facing coronal holes where solar winds emanate have been recently featured in Space Weather. Some scientists have linked these coronal holes with some of the most devastating earthquakes in recent times.

Phivolcs recorded the earthquake near Sulu at M7.2 with Depth of 625 kms.

BPEarthwatch video on the Philippine quake

SPACE WEATHER: Diagram showing how solar winds interact with the planet. Wikipedia

And how do auroras look like these days?

Photo of aurora appearing today Jan 12 in SpaceWeather. Auroras are sparked by a stream of solar wind flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere.