By MIKE CONLEY
nconley@mcdowellnews.com
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Can animals predict earthquakes and other impending disasters? Many people, including scientists, believe they can and are pointing to Tuesday's earthquake in southern California as further evidence of this weird phenomenon.
The quake on Tuesday measured 5.4 on the Richter scale and rattled millions of people from Los Angeles to San Diego. It was even felt as far away as Las Vegas. It wasn't the "Big One" that scientists have long feared but it was enough to get people all shook up. The tremblor's epicenter was located just outside Chino Hills, 29 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Dozens of aftershocks followed, the largest a magnitude-3.8, according to the Associated Press.
And in Chino Hills, a 10-year-old girl was spending Tuesday at a horse camp not far from her home. Just before the quake hit, she noticed the horses and dogs stir nervously. A man also reported that his cats started acting strangely and running through the house right before the earth started to shake, read The Los Angeles Times' Web site.
Such tales are not unusual. For centuries, people have suspected that their animal friends have an uncanny ability to predict an earthquake. In 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals (including rats, snakes and weasels) fled the Greek city of Helice just days before an earthquake devastated the city. Japan has suffered greatly from earthquakes and researchers there have long studied animals in attempt to discover how they can predict when one will occur.
Here in the United States, seismologists are more skeptical but they have not completely discounted the idea that animals can sense when an earthquake is about to hit. The Web site for the U.S. Geological Survey states "Anecdotal evidence abounds of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects exhibiting strange behavior anywhere from weeks to seconds before an earthquake. However, consistent and reliable behavior prior to seismic events, and a mechanism explaining how it could work, still eludes us. Most, but not all, scientists pursuing this mystery are in China or Japan."
Almost a year ago, a small earthquake rattled McDowell County and other places in western North Carolina. Most folks don't realize that a fault line runs through McDowell, including the inside of Linville Caverns and running all the way down through Marion. The brief quake of magnitude-2.8 rumbled through western North Carolina at 6:04 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007.
I remember that quake making our small dog bark loudly and waking everyone up that morning. But I can't remember if she was barking before it hit since I wasn't quite awake at the time.
It is believed that animals have this ability because they sense the Earth's vibrations better than humans can. Another theory holds that they can detect subtle changes in the air or gases released from underground.
In any event, if your dog, cat, goldfish, parakeet or other animal starts acting weird, it might be a good idea to brace yourself for an earthquake.
***
Last week's column about the UFO sighting by two Eastern Airline pilots in 1948 resulted in an interesting response from one of my readers.
Ginger Todd wrote to me about how much she enjoyed the column. She was only 2 years old when the sighting took place but heard about it many times over the years. That is because her late father, Hal Ball, was a captain for Eastern Airlines for 29 years and knew both pilots very well. He was a personal friend with pilots Clarence Chiles and John Whitted and respected them greatly. He never questioned what they reported seeing.
"Although Dad himself never told me he saw a UFO, he did experience a 'fireball' (static electricity) run through the aisle of his plane," she said.
Based on experiences like that, Ball knew that these two men saw something that couldn't be easily explained away. And they didn't see a weather balloon either.
http://www.mcdowellnews.com/servlet/Sat ... 3355996017
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