Local residents report earthquakes on coast and inland of SP
The 4.0magnitude earthquake that shook the coast and interior of São Paulo may have been “seen in advance” by some animals, such as birds and dogs. According to the US Geological Survey, living things have the ability to perceive one of two types of “waves” that make up an earthquake.
However, the US Geological Survey warns that animals appeared just seconds before humans, and not days or weeks before the earthquake.
In fact, according to the Geological Survey, there is scientific reason to believe that animals are better at sensing small tremors seconds before an earthquake.
However, there is also research that indicates that this topic needs further investigation, as emphasized by the Research Center for Geosciences and the Institute for Earth and Environmental Sciences in Germany in a study that evaluated 180 cases but concluded that If this is the case, it is difficult to assume that the animals exhibited any abnormal behavior or even “predicted” the earthquake.
Research shows that animals feel tremors
Researchers who claim that animals can sense tremors in front of humans rely on the existence of two types of seismic waves associated with earthquakes:
- For the P wavesthe first to be emitted during an earthquake, moving away from the epicenter at a speed of several kilometers per second;
- For the S wavessecondary, which make the ground tremble.
Few humans can sense P waves, but many animals with heightened senses sense these waves before the S waves arrive.
Martin Wikelski, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, published research on this topic in 2020.
It’s not known why the animals feel the lightest of waves, but he claims that research found the animals changed their behavior about 45 minutes before earthquakes were recorded in Italy. Here are some examples of behavior:
- cows stand still and do not move;
- Dogs become restless, start barking a lot;
- The sheep are disoriented
Research that has not yet found evidence
According to the Washington Post newspaper, a 2018 review of 700 records of animal behavior before earthquakes concluded that it’s still not possible to come to a conclusion.
In this review, we tried to find out whether animals sense earthquakes before seismic machines do. Much of the evidence is unreliable, the study found.
The 2018 survey by the Research Center for Geosciences and the Institute for Earth and Environmental Sciences concludes that the evaluated data is incomplete and therefore it cannot be said that the animals predicted the earthquakes.
According to the study, it is difficult to apply a methodology that manages to classify the behavior of the animals and use this behavior, however abnormal, as a “prediction” factor of the seismic event.
Therefore, there is consensus that animals, due to their greater sensory sensitivity, sense the first shock waves in front of humans, which can lead to alarm behavior. Other theories could not be confirmed.
Stories from Ancient Greece
Reports of animal behavior before seismic events are old. In the year 373 BC In BC, Thucydides, a Greek historian, mentioned that animals left the city of Helix before a devastating earthquake.
The same thing happened before the 1805 Naples earthquake and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
There are even records of horses panicking just before the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, USA.