Что такое earthquake light
Earthquake lights, explained
Mysterious lights that dance in the days or hours leading up to earthquakes take many different shapes and colors.
When a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico in 2017, eerie images of green and blue lights in the sky popped up on social media. The so-called Mexico earthquake lights were yet another mysterious instance of a phenomenon that has been puzzling experts for hundreds of years.
Like ball lightning, earthquake lights are relatively rare—captivating but hard for scientists to explain. Complicating matters, the instances of luminosity around earthquakes don’t all look the same, sparking theories that range from plain old lightning to UFOs and otherworldly apparitions.
The lights can take «many different shapes, forms, and colors,» Friedemann Freund, an adjunct professor of physics at San Jose State University and a senior researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said in a 2014 National Geographic interview.
Earthquake lights in history
Freund and colleagues studied 65 accounts of such lights reaching as far back as 1600, publishing their findings in Seismological Research Letters in 2014.
On November 12, 1988, for example, people reported a bright purple-pink globe of light along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, 11 days before a powerful quake. In Pisco, Peru, the lights were bright flashes that lit up the sky, captured in security camera video before an 8.0-magnitude quake in 2007. And before a 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, four-inch (ten-centimeter) flames of light were seen flickering above a stone street.
Are they real?
The U.S. Geological Survey is circumspect about whether earthquake lights, or EQL, really exist. «Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL,» the agency says on its website. «Some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL, whereas others think that at least some reports plausibly correspond to EQL.»
Freund is in the latter camp.
What could cause earthquake lights?
Analyzing 65 earthquake light incidents for patterns in the 2014 study, Freund and colleagues theorized that the lights are caused by electric charges activated in certain types of rocks during seismic activity, «as if you switched on a battery in the Earth’s crust.»
earthquake lights
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Earthquake light — An earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon, similar in appearance to the aurora borealis, that allegedly appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity or volcanic eruptions. Scientific evidence for the … Wikipedia
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earthquake lighting
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earthquake lights
Смотреть что такое «earthquake lights» в других словарях:
Earthquake light — An earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon, similar in appearance to the aurora borealis, that allegedly appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity or volcanic eruptions. Scientific evidence for the … Wikipedia
earthquake — /errth kwayk /, n. 1. a series of vibrations induced in the earth s crust by the abrupt rupture and rebound of rocks in which elastic strain has been slowly accumulating. 2. something that is severely disruptive; upheaval. [1300 50; ME erthequake … Universalium
Earthquake Early Warning (Japan) — The Nihongo|Earthquake Early Warning (EEW)|緊急地震速報|Kinkyū Jishin Sokuhō is a warning which is issued just after an earthquake in Japan is detected.cite news url=http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/eew1.html title=What is the Earthquake Early… … Wikipedia
Earthquake Valve — An earthquake valve or seismic valve is an automatic way to shut off the low pressure regulated gas supply to a structure during a major earthquake and/or if a pipe is broken. These are applicable both to utility supplied natural gas and to… … Wikipedia
1976 Tangshan earthquake — Earthquake title = Tangshan earthquake date = July 28, 1976 (China time zone) depth = location = coord|39.60|N|118.20|E|display=inline,title magnitude = 7.8 countries affected = People s Republic of China casualties = highly controversial 242,419 … Wikipedia
1985 Mexico City earthquake — Mexico city Collapsed General Hospital … Wikipedia
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Great Hanshin earthquake — Great Hanshin Earthquake … Wikipedia
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earthquake
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earthquake — earthquake; mi·cro·earthquake; … English syllables
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