Animals Can Sense an Earthquake

In the wake of the Los Angeles 4.7 earthquake at 8:39pm on Sunday May 17th, 2009, local news station KCal Channel 9 has reported dozens of eyewitness accounts from pet owners of a disturbance in their animal's behavior moments before the quake. Earthquakes are plentiful in this part of the country, and time after time, the same information is given about the pets. Dogs barking for no known reason, cats running down the hall and disappearing under the bed, even birds have reacted with incessant chatter.

Japan and China are two nations that have scientists looking for the answer. According to Roger Musson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, China has taken the animal warning signs very seriously, though he believes there are no conclusive signs that are reliable.

However, China's animal behaviorists have studied the reports from zoo keepers at the Wuhan Zoo, located 600 miles from the epicenter of a severe quake. Five minutes before the quake struck, zebras were banging their heads on doors, elephants swung their trunks wildly and peacocks were screetching. Such behavior has been observed and reported all over the world regarding domestic and wild animals.

Another revealing instance of foreknowledge occured when the 9.0 quake hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand in 2004. The working elephants at a tourist riding facility in Thailand reacted five minutes before the quake struck. Tourists reported the creatures to cry and pace with panic. Just seconds before the first tsunami swells hit the shore, the elephants swooped up tourists in their trunks and ran up the hills to higher ground.

What exactly the animals sense, we don't know for sure. It could be the shifting of geological matter miles below the surface that they have a hyper-sensitive feeling for, similar to a human sensing a shockwave at the surface. One possible explanation is the change in the Earth's magnetic field shortly before an earthquake strikes. These electrical disturbances are powerful and may trigger fear in an animal. One such case where the electromagnetic field was so severely altered took place 2008 in Chifeng City, China, inside the Mongolian territory, located about 140 miles from the epicenter. Ten hours before the devastating quake struck, there were reports of cellphone malfunctions, mainly attributed to a shifting in the atmosphere's magnetic waves. In addition to the physical evidence of a pre-quake technical disturbance, villagers reported erratic behavior from their animals.

Scientists from the West are reluctant to attribute animal behavior to earthquake predictions, regardless of the international reports consistant with animal sensitivity to changes in the Earth. Though their empirical data does not support such studies, their incomplete conclusions do not mitigate the reality of what takes place around the world. To everyone who lives in an earthquake-prone area, regard the warning from your pets. So far, they've got it right every time.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html
www.wikihow.com/Know-Naturally-when-Earthquake-Will-Strike
www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/21/content_257045.htm
www.livescience.com/mysteries/080516-llm-predict.html
www.csmngt.com/thailand_elephants.htm
www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/earthquake_alarm