Sofia Santos’s OSINT Exercise #014

Hello readers! Today we’ll be tackling Gralhix’s OSINT Exercise #14. This challenge is rated medium/hard for beginners and easy/medium for experts, making it a great way to test your skills. It’s not especially long, but it does require some creative thinking and a few pivots along the way.

If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend giving it a shot on your own before reading my full walkthrough. Let’s dive in!

Exercise #014

Tasks:

The video below was recorded during an earthquake. Please find the answer to the following questions:

a) What was the magnitude of this earthquake?
b) What are the coordinates of where the camera was likely located in order to record this scene?

Click here to open the video in a new window.

The video timestamp shows “24/09/2016 Sat 02:18:00”, with text “Terminal 3” in the bottom right corner. At first, I thought I could simply search for this date in an earthquake tracker, but that didn’t yield the results I needed. Too many results.

I tried looking for more clues in the video but I couldn’t make out any of the flags, license plates, street signs, and none of the buildings really stood out to me.

I turned to Google instead, combining the date with the keyword “earthquake.” Most of the results referenced an earthquake in Romania on that date.

To confirm, I searched YouTube for “24 September 2016 Romania earthquake” and found a video titled: “Earthquake in Romania / Cutremur in Romania / Terr” – a match to the one in our challenge. This confirmed that the event was related to the earthquake from Romania. (And as a bonus, I learned that cutremur means “earthquake” in Romanian.)

Unfortunately, checking the YouTube metadata didn’t reveal any geolocation details. That left the phrase “Terminal 3” as my next lead.

A targeted query – romania earthquake “terminal 3” – surfaced another video titled:
“Cutremur Chisinau 24.09.2016.” This was a breakthrough: Chisinau is the capital of Moldova, Romania’s neighbor. Reports confirmed the 24 September 2016 earthquake was felt there as well. Romania’s National Institute for Earth Physics (INFP) initially rated it 5.6, later adjusting it to 5.3.

Back to the video: several buildings were visible, but none stood out immediately. After some reverse image searching, one distinctive white building in the background provided a match.

It turned out to be the Atrium Shopping Center in Chisinau. Comparing Google Maps imagery with the video, I was able to match the pyramid-shaped roof and nearby flags, confirming the camera’s location. A user-submitted photo sealed the confirmation.

Solutions

a) What was the magnitude of this earthquake?
Solution: 5.3
b) What are the coordinates of where the camera was likely located in order to record this scene?
Solution: 47.01756963227232, 28.852672839650232

That wraps up Exercise #14! What began with a vague earthquake video turned into a step-by-step OSINT puzzle that linked dates, keywords, local language, and visual verification of a shopping center in Chisinau.

Thanks for following along. I hope this breakdown gave you some ideas for your own OSINT workflow. See you in the next challenge!

Resources

• https://gralhix.com/list-of-osint-exercises/osint-exercise-014/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTG1LpMN7g
• https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/archive/2016-sep-24.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ietMeFx3fsQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvGpouFqmJ0
• https://www.romania-insider.com/5-3-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-romania-friday-night