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Earthquake ELFs

By Gregon

With news today of an earthquake in Mexico (because TDG admin RPJ didn’t have enough to worry about already), it’s worth checking out this recent news item on early earthquake detection, written by researcher Friedemann Freund. The SETI Institute researcher points out that ELF/ULF (Extremely/Ultra Low Frequency) emissions may provide the key to an early warning system which could save countless lives:

The moderate Alum Rock earthquake, magnitude 5.4, rattled the southern San Francisco Bay in late 2007. For those who experienced it at close quarters, it was a brief, hard jolt. Overall this event was unremarkable – except that one of QuakeFinder’s CalMagNet stations, which are spread over California along the San Andreas Fault, was barely 2 km from the epicenter.

A new paper, just published by “Natural Hazards and Earth System Science,” describes that three suspected pre-earthquake indicators were recorded by this QuakeFinder station: (i) short bursts of electromagnetic radiation, 10-30 sec long, increasing in number over the last two weeks before the quake, (ii) a 14-hours long episode of intense air ionization on the day before the earthquake, and (iii) a continuous wave of ULF magnetic pulsations, lasting for nearly 1 hour during the time of the most intense air ionization. In addition, satellites picked up enhanced infrared radiation emitted from several areas around the earthquake site. Together these observations make a strong case that they are all related to this earthquake BEFORE it struck.

With observations like these the future for earthquake early warning looks bright. Once the basic physical processes are understood, we can bring to bear many different techniques, both space-bound and on the ground, each capable of providing a different piece of the puzzle.

There’s a long history of (mostly neglected) research into these ideas, particularly on the topic of ‘earthquake lights’ (almost considered a paranormal topic by some scientists it seems, and, ironically, sometimes used to explain paranormal phenomena).

Funnily enough, it’s a research topic that has also been touched on (tangentially) in both Darklore 2 (in “The Fog”, by The Emperor), and Darklore 3 (“Shaking Stars”, by Geoff Falla). Luckily for the casual reader, both articles are available at the Darklore website as free sample articles (in PDF format). For those that prefer to read on paper, go pick up Darklore 2 or Darklore 3 (either the Limited Edition Hardcover or the
paperback edition.

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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7 Comments

  2. Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on!
    I wonder if the process is reversible? By manipulating a large electromagnetic field around a fault, would it be possible to physically alter, say relax, a portion of the fault, resulting in an earthquake?

  3. Ahh, some geology.
    Hay All,
    This is pretty interesting. I don’t remember anything being taught at degree level geology about electrical activity during earthquakes, but then it was a decade ago and the sciences move pretty quickly, especially nowadays. We concentrated more on fault activity and field examples i think.
    I’ve read a bit about the lights since the post a week or so ago about them.

    Of interest to me is their sparsity. So few accounts of lights or changes in the moon colour etc, especially compared to the 8000 or so quakes a day. The examples are all of big quakes though, but this is still important.

    I would be interested in the proposed geophysical mechanisms for the generation of the EM fields. I cant read the whole paper at the moment, but i know what i would expect it to contain to be of much use and the abstract is a little lacking, though interesting as a report of preliminary findings.

    Each location is different, with different geology, so even if this works in this location it doesnt mean it will in others sadly. If one particular fault has high levels of radon associated rocks then of course measuring radon will indicate fault activity and vice versa for electrical activity. It would be interesting to see if the increases didnt correspond with movement on the fault though, perhaps relating to hydrothermal activity which might increase the chance of movement on the fault.

    Hydrothermal activity might correspond with electrical activity as well i suppose, if ferromagnetic minerals were involved perhaps, giving another way of looking inside the fault.

    I would like to know whether the lights and changes in colour in the sky etc are related to particulates in the atmosphere or whether the electrical activity and ULF is just playing with the brains perception in some way.

    Other stuff, like meteorites a few days before etc are likely to be coincidence. Perhaps if a meteor came a few days before the quake was more likely to be preseved in folk lore. Unless the meteor hit ground in which case it could add stress to an already weak fault. Its gravity almost certainly wouldnt be strong enough to stress a fault plane given the numbers involved in meteor masses and fault plane tensions and stresses.

    1. Meteor-wrongs
      [quote=daydreamer]Other stuff, like meteorites a few days before etc are likely to be coincidence. Perhaps if a meteor came a few days before the quake was more likely to be preseved in folk lore. [/quote]

      The difficulty with that explanation is when the ‘meteor’ takes 15 minutes to traverse the sky. Then we have something other than a rock from space.

      Kind regards,
      Greg
      ——————————————-
      You monkeys only think you’re running things
      @DailyGrail

      1. Agreed, good point. In that
        Agreed, good point.

        In that particular instance i’m stuck. We’re back to aliens etc perhaps. Not a nice thought to think they travel that far to cause earthquakes, but maybe there would have been a worse one and they came to release the stress.

        Obviously interpretations of strange historic events will always be a bit empty until we get more information, the aliens arrive and tell us what they were up to for example.

        Data is always lost in the past so it is not as interesting as the future to me. Catching something in action is how we change our perspectives (well- some of us). I dont feel it’s unreasonable to include in an assessment of these histories the possibility of incorrect records and incorrect explanations. It would be unreasonable not to include them. The only question is how likely it is that that 15 minute figure is accurate. It is a big claim and some would see that as giving it weight, but both possibilities can be played with.

        One thing i’m excited about is the prevalence of modern mobile phones. If there is anything to these types of stories then the evidence should start mounting from now into the future.

        1. Jumping Aliens
          [quote=daydreamer]In that particular instance i’m stuck. We’re back to aliens etc perhaps. Not a nice thought to think they travel that far to cause earthquakes, but maybe there would have been a worse one and they came to release the stress.[/quote]

          I don’t think it’s necessary to jump to aliens. I’d still imagine it’s a physical process…some sort of plasma ball or somesuch? The subsequent problem though is when we look at the Fatima event, and we have visions of ‘entities’, predictions of when to visit the site in future to see the phenomenon, etc.

          Kind regards,
          Greg
          ——————————————-
          You monkeys only think you’re running things
          @DailyGrail

          1. false positives
            One problem with all thse prediction methods seems to be the false positives.

            Yes these electromagnetic phenomena, and the Radon, and the scared animals happen before a major quake. But they also happen when there is no major quake.

            This is not meant to make fun of these efforts. But look here to see how many quakes there were last week.

            Based on these data I confidently predict that there will be an earthquake in Los Angeles tomorrow.

            —-
            It is not how fast you go
            it is when you get there.

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