5 ms·
What are these animals sensing prior to earthquakes? Hyperlocal changes in the earth's magnetic field?
by fludlight 8y ago
What are these animals sensing prior to earthquakes? Hyperlocal changes in the earth's magnetic field?
- bradfitz 8y agoI suspect if we knew we'd just measure it ourselves rather than measuring animal movement from space?
- ghaff 8y agoThat's why a lot of people (quoted in the article) are appropriately skeptical. Unless animals (but not humans, it would seem) are sensing some real physical effect that could be measured independently, it's unlikely there is anything to this.
- eloff 8y agoAnd then presumably we could make a machine that's a more accurate and sensitive detector - if there is really something to it.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoIt could be a form of infrasound, and maybe in a pattern which isn't readily detected by seismographs.
- InclinedPlane 8y agoThat would be my (completely unsubstantiated) guess as well. Animals, including humans, are surprisingly sensitive to infrasound, but there hasn't been a ton of research on the subject so far.
- SirLuxuryYacht 8y agoSeismometers have precision on the order of ppb. Considering that there is no acoustic energy released prior to an earthquake, an infrasound precursor is extremely unlikely and something that seismologists would have already characterized.
- hashmap 8y agohttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615297/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615297/ This study says earthquake precursor movements send signals into the ionosphere, that cause other signals to propagate to earth, which can make objects vibrate audibly, minutes or possibly hours before the main shock. It argues this may be what animals are hearing. Rube Goldberg if true.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoWhich is the reason why I said "a pattern" not readily recognized. The condition detected by the animal would not be a specific signal strength or frequency, but rather a more complicated pattern.