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Saturday, March 6, 2010

Earthquake Lights

In the past, people would try to discern what the weather would be by using various folk methods of weather forecasting.  Old time weather forecasts may be based on whether or not the sky is red in the morning or evening, how high starlings fly in the evening, or how tight a pine cone is closed.  There may be another method that has been overlooked though -- possibly a method for predicting earthquakes.

I only recently became familiar with a phenomena called "earthquake lights," a type of luminous phenomena that appears in the sky prior to some earthquakes.  The lights are usually blue or white flashes of light, but may also include a wider color spectrum.

Here is a picture of what is alleged to be earthquake lights that occurred prior to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.



When I first read about earthquake lights the other day, it was in an article blaming them on a HAARP conspiracy.  According to the article I read, earthquake lights had been seen prior to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.  I decided to see what else I could find out about earthquake lights, and I came across a question regarding earthquake lights on the FAQ page for the U.S. Geological Survey.  According to the answer for that question, earthquake lights have been reported since ancient times but were not acknowledged in the seismological community until the 1960s.  There are several theories as to what may cause the earthquake lights, but there is no single theory that has been agreed upon.

Considering earthquake lights have been reported since ancient times, all the occurrences can't be blamed on HAARP since HAARP wasn't established until 1993.  Whether or not any of the recent occurrences can be blamed on HAARP, I don't know.  Whatever the lights are, they appear to be some sort of natural occurrence.

It's not that I'm surprised that mysterious lights have been known to appear in the sky before an earthquake, but I am a little surprised that I haven't heard about it before.  It's possible I may have heard about it in the past, but if I did, I had forgotten about it.  So the question in my mind is why aren't these lights more widely publicized?  When I was a kid in school, we were taught that tornadoes sound like trains.  So I knew to associate a tornado with the sound of a train.  But I don't recall anyone ever mentioning that rainbow colored lights sometimes appear in the sky prior to earthquakes.  It may still be difficult to accurately predict an earthquake even if earthquake lights appear because they can appear as much as a few weeks in advance or even after the actual earthquake, and the lights may appear far away from the epicenter too.  But you'd think it would be a good idea to tell people that if they see mysterious rainbow colored lights appearing in the sky on an otherwise clear day, they may want to start securing anything fragile -- you know, just in case.

6 comments:

  1. I did see what I called "sun dogs" on the day of the 6.0 in LA in October 1987. I was having morning sickness at the time and the entire old apartment building was doing some funky things. I don't like the earthquakes that roll--I prefer the back and forth shaking ones. This was a roller and the cabinets pitched forward, dishes broke in the dishwasher and my head was in the toilet. I raced outside right away to check on the elderly folks downstairs and then went to check the gas lines. I remember two things: 1. The dogs barking and howling beforehand and after. 2. The sun dogs in the sky. We usually had marine layer in the morning but there were some rainbow colors showing up in it and I figured it was the marine layer burning off (rather early--it was like 7 am and it didn't usually burn off until noon when we got a 2-hour glimpse of sky each day). I thought it was a sign, but I had never heard of earthquake lights and I had been through a lot of them, but never this big. What intrigues me about the whole thing is how one event can create other satellite events and you don't know to correlate them. It happens a lot in the ghost hunting world. I believe the plates shifting has to release perhaps a gas into the air or somehow change the geomagnetic activity so we get something akin to northern lights. Sun dogs are usually just moisture up in the sky and the light shining through it, but earthquakes wouldn't explain traditional sun dogs. It really is something different. Great post BTW!

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  2. So does that mean you missed the National Geographic show the other day called Mystery Lights?

    They actually performed the test that creates the lights, which is friction of rocks in the earth. When the lights appear above ground, it can happen before or after the earthquake since that slamming isn't necessarily the earthquake but rather sometimes a precursor.

    It was a very interesting test and if the show appears again soon, you should see it. It thoroughly convinced me that those lights are nothing more than ground activity under the earth. The Marfa lights may be the same thing as well.

    That HAARP situation is exactly why I don't do conspiracy theories in my blogs. Science eventually always comes up with an answer once they have made the proper tests.

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  3. Thanks for the eyewitness account Autumnforest!

    No, I didn't see anything on National Geographic the other day about it. I rarely ever look to see what is coming on National Geographic anymore. I'm very selective with what I will watch that they put out. I used to try to keep up with what they were going to be showing, but too many of their documentaries became to predictable. Anything dealing with history's mysteries or religion and I pretty much knew how they would spin it before I even watched. NatGeo is very one sided and biased in my opinion. So eventually I lost interest in watching National Geographic. I'll still watch NatGeo occasionally though, it just depends on the subject matter. Certain stuff they present is still interesting, and the program you're talking about sounds like it might be good.

    As far as HAARP goes, I don't know if HAARP is causing earthquakes or not, but showing that earthquake lights occur naturally isn't proof that HAARP hasn't caused an earthquake. If the scientists performing the tests on the show were able to duplicate the effects, then that means the effect can be induced my man also. If man can perform a test that duplicates the effect, then technically, one could argue that the effect could be duplicated by HAARP too.

    Again, I'm not saying HAARP is or isn't causing earthquakes, but the fact that earthquake lights occur naturally isn't proof by itself that HAARP isn't involved.

    Just sayin', you know. :)

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  4. Yes, Nat Geo has become the skeptic and it's no secret that they're atheists.

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  5. On 20th October 1966 I was walking up Cefnpennar hill in Glamorgan, South Wales with my mother. It had been raining for a few days and this was the first lull. It was early evening and dark. Over to our right was a mountain. Above it we noticed a light, hovering. Then another, then another. One by one they appeared to shift to the left, then back again.
    Even when they stayed in place they quivered (i.e. danced), as if highly energized.
    The following day a terrible disaster occurred on the other side of the mountain (see http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/politics/aberfan/chap1.htm).
    For decades I could not explain the lights. Eventually, a TV documentary which included some footage from New Mexico provided a clue. The lights are manifestations of huge energy, released when plates of land are rubbing together (usually) prior to a shift. The energies shoot up and show as light when they hit bits of the atmosphere (as National Geographic has now clarified - thanks for the heads-up!).

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  6. Last night I saw one!! then today we had big shakes!

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