Have Scientists Solved The Mystery Of ‘Earthquake Lights’?

By Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism

Friedemann Freund, a crystallographer at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) and professor at San Jose State University (SJSU), co-authored a study of the phenomenon of “obscure flashes of power” which is defined as “quake lights”.

Scientifically understood, the lights will appear during geological rifts when the tectonic plates are pulling away from each other.

The rift will expose magma from deep inside the Earth, allowing it to migrate to the surface.

Because this magma has crystalline structures , which are conducive for conducting electricity because of intense friction, the ionization in the atmosphere creates a flash of light.

Freund stated: “Tremor lights are completely underreported. They are frequently things that happen inside a division of a second.”

These light shows appear to be flares of gleaming strips resembling odd shaped rainbows or flashing orbs which are reported just before seismic activity.

The research team analyzed “reliable reports” from the 1600s to present day with a particular focus on “27 earthquakes from the Americas and 38 from Europe.”

Of the near 70 earthquakes complied in the research, 56 were recorded “along an active or ancient rift zone.”

His phenomenon has been recorded by eye witnesses for centuries, yet never fully explained by the scientific community.

This proposed theory suggests “that during an earthquake, the stress of rocks grinding against each other generates electric charges, which travel upwards along the nearly vertical geological faults that are common in rift zones. When the charges reach Earth’s surface and interact with the atmosphere, they create a glow.”

Robert Thériault, a geologist at Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and lead author of the study commented : “Earthquake lights are a real phenomenon—they’re not UFOs. They can be scientifically explained.”

Freund acknowledges that the experiments in laboratories that have “shown that electric fields can be generated in certain types of rock by squeezing” and that these findings are but on “possible mechanism to explain earthquake lights.”

Thériault said: “The catalog opens up other ideas for studying earthquake lights. We don’t know quite yet why more earthquake light events are related to rift environments than other types of faults, but unlike other faults that may dip at a 30-35 degree angle, such as in subduction zones, subvertical faults characterize the rift environments in these cases.”

It is assumed based on this theory that earthquake lights may be “a pre-earthquake phenomenon, in combination with other types of parameters that vary prior to seismic activity, may one day help forecast the approach of a major quake.”

Sources :

1. Occupy Corporatism
2. Image Credit

The post Have Scientists Solved The Mystery Of ‘Earthquake Lights’? appeared at WOC – Alternative Real News – Your #1 Real News source. Why not follow us on Facebook?