Everything about Earthquake Lights totally explained
An
earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon, similar in appearance to the
aurora borealis, that allegedly appears in the sky at or near areas of
tectonic stress,
seismic activity or volcanic eruptions. Scientific evidence for the presence of lights is sketchy, given that there are few references documenting the phenomenon.
Appearance
The lights are most evident in the middle period of an earthquake, although there are reports of lights that occurred after or even before the earthquake, as in the
1976 Tangshan earthquake. They usually have shapes similar to those of the
auroras with white to bluish hue, but occasionally they've been reported to have a wider
color spectrum. The luminosity is typically visible for several seconds, but there have been cases in which they lasted tens of minutes. In the 1930 Idu earthquake, lights were reported up to 70 miles from the epicentre., although most lights are not so far away.
There have also been cases in which
electromagnetic waves caused by the earthquake interfered with radio transmissions, such as during the
Great Chilean Earthquake of
1960.
Distinguishing earthquake lights from other transient optical phenomena can be difficult during the chaos of a tremor. For example, a bluish-white flashes that are accompanied by loud bangs or hissing during an earthquake are more likely the result of electrical arcing in power lines or transformers. But in some videos, the light can be seen as a long flash in the night high in the sky
History
Records of earthquakes that were accompanied by lights can be found as far back as
373 BC in ancient
Greek writings, that "immense columns of flame" foretold the earthquake that destroyed the cities of
Helike and
Boura. However, even in the early
20th century they were still considered a
myth, despite an investigation of lights seen during the
1930 Idu earthquake by researchers from
Tokyo University, until photographs of actual lights were taken in
Japan in the
1960s.
The night before the
1976 Tangshan earthquake, many people in
Tangshan reported seeing strange lights.
In
Peru's
earthquake that occurred south of Lima on August 15 2007, earthquake lights could be seen across the Lima sky before and during the earthquake. Several videos were taken.
On May 12, 2008, 30 minutes prior to the
Sichuan Earthquake, a cell phone captured footage of multi-colored clouds in the sky
(External Link
). The footage was uploaded to Youtube. There is also footage from
Meixian, Shaanxi, approximately 550km northeast of the epicenter, recorded 10 minutes before the earthquake. However, the footage appears to show a
circumhorizontal arc, which is caused by refraction of the sun's light through ice particles in a cirrus cloud, similar to a
rainbow. Earthquake lights were also spotted in
Tianshui, Gansu, approximately 400 km north-northeast of the epicenter.
Theories
The precise mechanism, if such a phenomenon exists—as opposed to being coincidence with aurora or mistaken recall after a traumatic event such as an earthquake—is unknown. One theory suggests that earthquake lights are a form of
plasma discharge caused by the release of gases from within the Earth and are electrically charged in the air.
Another possible explanation is local disruption of the Earth's magnetic field and/or
ionosphere in the region of tectonic stress, resulting in the observed glow effects either from ionospheric radiative recombination at lower altitudes and greater atmospheric pressure or as
aurora. However, the effect is clearly not pronounced or notably observed at all earthquake events and is yet to be directly experimentally verified.
Another explanation involves intense electric fields created
piezoelectrically by tectonic movements of rocks containing
quartz.
Some similar clouds have been reported during nuclear tests and
Radon is likely to be an earthquake precursor, so another theory is that glowing clouds might be
light emission produced by
Nuclear reactions or
ionization and plasma-chemical reactions
Further Information
Get more info on 'Earthquake Lights'.
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