[Animals] Animals are emerging as effective precursors of earthquakes

[#Wittels-]

Snakes can feel an earthquake 120 kilometers away: in China they have devised a system to predict earthquakes that takes advantage of this ability

 

The snakes were able to anticipate an earthquake by up to five days.

 

Many animals are equipped with highly developed sensory resources that have managed to read a number of natural signals on which they may depend for their lives, so it seems perfectly possible that they could detect any precursor to earthquakes. China has already created an earthquake warning system by monitoring the behavior of animals.

China has designed an earthquake prediction system based on the behavior of snakes, the earthquake bureau in Nanning, South China, recently reported. At the same time, a 2020 study by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany concludes that continuous biological recording of animal collectives has the potential to provide statistically reliable patterns of pre-seismic activity, which could yield valuable information for forecasting. short-term earthquakes.

the power of serpents

 

Are animals the solution to the problem of predicting earthquakes, which continually hit different parts of the globe and put human lives and material resources at risk? As reported by the Reuters agency, the Chinese authorities seem determined to take advantage of the skills of the snakes in this regard: they created a system to monitor the reptiles in local snake farms, through video cameras connected to a broadband Internet connection. wide. The video transmission works 24 hours a day.

What is the OBJETIVE? Chinese specialists believe that of all the creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes: they are able to feel the steps leading up to an earthquake 120 kilometers away, three to five days in advance. that the earthquake materializes.

How to react with strange behavior, its permanent monitoring could serve the authorities to put the po[CENSORED]tion on alert and start with a contingency plan. Those responsible for the project maintain that when an earthquake is about to occur, the snakes come out of their nests, even in the cold of winter. If the earthquake is large, the snakes will even crash into the walls of their shelters as they try to escape, according to experts.

 

Eyewitness accounts and scientific studies
On the other hand, an article published on BBC.com summarizes different experiences and efforts related to the attempt to use the sensory resources of animals to predict earthquakes. As early as 373 BC, the Greek historian Thucydides reported that rats, dogs, snakes, and weasels abandoned the city of Helice in the days before a catastrophic earthquake.

Meanwhile, in 2004 a massive tsunami triggered by a 9.1 magnitude underwater earthquake off Indonesia killed at least 225,000 people in a dozen countries: in the minutes and hours before the event, eyewitness accounts indicate that elephants ran for higher ground, flamingos abandoned low-lying nesting areas, and dogs refused to go outdoors.

A study published in 2020 in the journal Ethology and led by the scientist Martin Wikelski of the Max Planck Institute has obtained some of the most important conclusions about how animals can predict disasters: the researchers recorded the movement patterns of different animals such as cows, sheep and dogs, on a farm located in an earthquake-prone region of central Italy.

 

concrete evidence
The scientists attached chip collars to each animal, which sent movement data to a computer. Between October 2016 and April 2017, specialists recorded more than 18,000 earthquakes in the region, from small tremors to a dozen major earthquakes. The evidence was compelling: farm animals began to change their behavior up to 20 hours before an earthquake.

When the monitored animals increased their activity for more than 45 minutes at a time, the researchers predicted an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 4.0 on the Richter scale. According to scientists, seven of the eight strong earthquakes in the area were correctly predicted in this way.

 

Although other studies dismiss this ability of animals, everything indicates that they could be a useful tool to improve prognosis and optimize prevention measures. It seems that listening more carefully to nature could be the way to save human lives in the future.

 

Link: https://www.levante-emv.com/tendencias21/2022/04/06/animales-perfilan-eficaces-precursores-terremotos-64721830.html