Does nature warn when a big earthquake is coming? Do animals hear this warning when we don’t?
This post presents different possible earthquake precursors or reading signs before an impending big earthquake.
1. AIR,SKY AND CLOUDS
A typical sky precursor was strange cloud formations, but also considerable remarks about the "earthquake weather": very still, warm, weather. On 4.30pm on the Friday a week before the quake, one resident reported seeing two "bizarre fan like rainbow clouds". "They started at the water and were side by side, never seen anything like it."
There were many reports of unusual clouds. However, everyone saw something different, and it is difficult to give a uniform standard for comparison of cloud formations, which are never associated with quakes.
2.GROUND/WATER
A typical ground precursor was a unique noise, particularly various bangs, often from several days before the September quake.
Three respondents reported unusual silt in usually clear streams before the quake, including in Hagley Park. One American being punted on the Avon the day before the quake saw silt and said an earthquake was on its way, but the person punting the American said they "never had earthquakes in Christchurch".
One couple near the mouth of the Waimakariri reported that the river appeared to be at least briefly flowing backwards. This mirrors a report for a Japanese earthquake on the Seta River and the 1812 New Madrid earthquake in which the direction of the Mississippi briefly reversed. There is also a video of the reversal phenomenon from Sichuan, China, associated with an earthquake.
However, the tilt required would be high, and although this is also mirrored by a report near Oamaru about unprecedentedly low tide, Whitehead says more research is required because wind and tides may also create this impression without tilt.
3.ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
A Thousands of Frogs Appear on City Streets Right Before China Earthquake.
4. EARTHQUAKE SIGNS: ELECTRONIC
The most typical electronic precursor was TV interference, unusual and sometimes unique the night before the quake.
On Friday, September 3, between 4.30pm and 9pm one respondent reported: "TV1, picture frozen. Tried other channels. The words 'No Service' came up. One time it got stuck on a picture of a religious ad of Jesus with no words on it. I said 'look, God is looking at us', after one minute we switched it off because it was starting to freak us out. The image stayed with us, just felt like something was different. We are not religious so it was strange."
Another person noticed that both their watch and clock radio had stopped at 3.17am and Whitehead says that is "rather persuasively a real precursor".
Others reported much static electricity in the week before the quake.
A bookstore reported that static was such that "customers' hairdos became bouffant and stickers persistently detached from books".
Whitehead says the best common explanation for these is static electricity fluctuations. The supposed very low frequency electromagnetic waves could have been involved.
5.EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS
An earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon that reportedly appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity, or volcanic eruptions.
This post presents different possible earthquake precursors or reading signs before an impending big earthquake.
1. AIR,SKY AND CLOUDS
A typical sky precursor was strange cloud formations, but also considerable remarks about the "earthquake weather": very still, warm, weather. On 4.30pm on the Friday a week before the quake, one resident reported seeing two "bizarre fan like rainbow clouds". "They started at the water and were side by side, never seen anything like it."
There were many reports of unusual clouds. However, everyone saw something different, and it is difficult to give a uniform standard for comparison of cloud formations, which are never associated with quakes.
2.GROUND/WATER
A typical ground precursor was a unique noise, particularly various bangs, often from several days before the September quake.
Three respondents reported unusual silt in usually clear streams before the quake, including in Hagley Park. One American being punted on the Avon the day before the quake saw silt and said an earthquake was on its way, but the person punting the American said they "never had earthquakes in Christchurch".
One couple near the mouth of the Waimakariri reported that the river appeared to be at least briefly flowing backwards. This mirrors a report for a Japanese earthquake on the Seta River and the 1812 New Madrid earthquake in which the direction of the Mississippi briefly reversed. There is also a video of the reversal phenomenon from Sichuan, China, associated with an earthquake.
However, the tilt required would be high, and although this is also mirrored by a report near Oamaru about unprecedentedly low tide, Whitehead says more research is required because wind and tides may also create this impression without tilt.
3.ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
A Thousands of Frogs Appear on City Streets Right Before China Earthquake.
4. EARTHQUAKE SIGNS: ELECTRONIC
The most typical electronic precursor was TV interference, unusual and sometimes unique the night before the quake.
On Friday, September 3, between 4.30pm and 9pm one respondent reported: "TV1, picture frozen. Tried other channels. The words 'No Service' came up. One time it got stuck on a picture of a religious ad of Jesus with no words on it. I said 'look, God is looking at us', after one minute we switched it off because it was starting to freak us out. The image stayed with us, just felt like something was different. We are not religious so it was strange."
Another person noticed that both their watch and clock radio had stopped at 3.17am and Whitehead says that is "rather persuasively a real precursor".
Others reported much static electricity in the week before the quake.
A bookstore reported that static was such that "customers' hairdos became bouffant and stickers persistently detached from books".
Whitehead says the best common explanation for these is static electricity fluctuations. The supposed very low frequency electromagnetic waves could have been involved.
5.EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS
An earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon that reportedly appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity, or volcanic eruptions.
