Earthquake Lights
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Alberto Enriquez, in the Anchorage Daily News, writes that
earthquakes don?t just cause the earth to move. They are
accompanied by loud noises that broadcast at radio
frequencies, and they can even produce a visible glow.
Radio interference was reported in the days before the worst
quake recorded (magnitude 9.5), in Chile in 1961, as well as
Alaska?s magnitude 9.2 Good Friday quake in 1964.
Thirty-eight luminous displays were seen by people in Quebec
before, during and after the earthquakes of November 1988.
The first photographs of earthquake lights were taken during
the Matsushiro ?earthquake swarm? in Japan between 1965
and 1967, when thousands of seismic events were being
recorded each day. Lights during a Chinese quake in 1976
turned night into day near the epicenter and woke up people
nearly 200 miles away.
In May 1978, residents of Homer, Alaska were awakened by
a ?false sunrise? over the western side the Cook Inlet several
hours before the real sunrise. About that time, Anchorage
bush pilot Sumner Putnam reported to the Division of
Geological and Geophysical Surveys that he saw greenish-
white flashes in Nondalton that coincided with bursts of
static on his plane?s radio.
?Earthquake lights? were noticed even in ancient times. The
Greek historian Thucydides wrote that ?immense columns of
flame? foretold an earthquake that destroyed the two ancient
cities of Helice and Burls. An ancient Japanese haiku says,
?The earth speaks softly
to the mountain,
Which trembles
And lights the sky.?
Now scientists may be able to reliably duplicate earthquake
lights or ?coronal discharges? under artificial conditions in the
lab. Because some earthquake lights occur hours and even
weeks before the quakes themselves, research into them
means that someday we may be able to use them to predict
earthquakes.
Physicist Friedemann Freund, a professor at San Jose State
University in California, theorizes that positive charges may
be created when huge stresses are generated along faults in
the Earth?s crust. The rocks in the crust normally act as
insulators that conduct electrical charges poorly. But under
the severe stress generated before an earthquake, these
rocks may behave briefly like the ?p-type semiconductors?
found in computer chips, which are capable of releasing large
numbers of positive charges referred to as ?holes.? These
charges speed upward toward the surface of the Earth at
between 220 and 660 mph. Freund thinks they ionize the
atmosphere upon reaching the air, creating bizarre effects,
such as radio interference and colored streamers, flashes and
glows.
Theories about earthquake lights were dismissed in the
1970s. Then in 1986, Brian Brady and Glen Rowell, of the U.S.
Bureau of Mines, created lights by breaking up rocks in
darkness. As the rocks broke apart, they gave off light that
did not have the characteristic spectrum of the minerals in
the rock, but of the air. This suggested that something given
off by the breaking itself had ionized the air.
Seismologist John Derr thinks accounts of earthquake lights in
the past are far more common than we realize and that they
were often were interpreted as spiritual experiences or
ghosts.
On the Alaska Peninsula, a brilliant glow often seen in the
mountains south of Lake Iliamna and visible up to 45 miles
away, is described by Native peoples as the work of ghosts.
Floating lights seen on the sacred mountain of Wu T'ai Shan
in China have been interpreted by Buddhists as a
manifestation of a saint. The Gospel of Matthew, 28:51-53,
says, ?The earth shook, and the rocks were split and the
bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and
seen coming out of tombs.? Reports in Australia of an oval
light chasing a car and of a UFO buzzing a fishing boat
occurred two days before a series of earthquakes.
Earthquake light effects are less pronounced at transverse
faults like the San Andreas in California, where plates mainly
rub alongside each other. Nevertheless, before the 1906 San
Francisco quake, a ?flickering haze? appeared over the
ground. Earthquake lights are much more pronounced near
the far more dangerous thrust faults, such as those that
occur in Alaska, where 51 percent of all U.S. quakes occur,
and in Japan.
Freund has developed a way to test his theory by generating
stress in rocks, which ?can account for earthquake-related
electrical signals causing electric discharges and earthquake
lights.? Duplicating earthquake lights in the lab is important
because science deals with reproducible events. Freund says
it?s tough to do basic research while waiting for the Earth ?to
repeat the experiment.?
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