Can Animals Sense Earthquakes Before They Take Place?

Intense earthquakes are unnerving, frightening, and even deadly. Scientists would need to monitor animals under controlled settings over lengthy periods of time in order to show that odd animal behaviors might forecast earthquakes. Animals might be lifesavers if they could tell us when a quake is likely to happen. But is it possible?

Increased Activity in Farm Animals Before Seismic Activity

There are several anecdotal examples of animals, birds, and insects acting abnormally before earthquakes in the academic literature, according to Scientific American.

As a first step, scientists would need to monitor animals under controlled settings over lengthy periods of time in order to show that odd animal actions might foretell earthquakes.

Seismic occurrences are known to cause strange animal behavior, such as a dog yelping repeatedly or a cow stopping her milking. A connection has been hypothesized by a few researchers.

Recently, scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour in conjunction with colleagues from other countries claim to have successfully measured an increase in activity in a herd of farm animals before an earthquake.

The scientists claim their results represent an important step forward in the hunt for a conclusive relationship, despite the fact that a clear link has not been established.

Research Findings

Instruments that can capture 48 movements per second in either direction were employed by the researchers. Biologgers and GPS sensors were mounted to six cows, five sheep and two dogs on a farm in an earthquake-prone region in northern Italy for four months in 2016 and 2017.

A study of the data included in the article takes into consideration the animals' regular daily routines and interactions.

When they were kept together in a stable, their activity rose dramatically before magnitude 3.8 or bigger earthquakes, but not when they were out in the open.

A convincing indication of anticipatory activity was found by looking at the increased motions in their totality, the researchers suggest.

Wikelski claims that this finding is in line with the notion of collective behavior. Iain Couzin, a colleague at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, has found evidence that animals, birds, insects, and fish communicate knowledge that enhances their survival abilities, such as navigation and avoidance of predators, in a study.

Swarm intelligence may occur inside or across species, Wikelski claims.

For up to 20 hours before an earthquake hits, researchers say farm animals can sense the tremors and react accordingly; this is especially true when they are closer to the source. According to the authors, this supports the idea that animals sense a signal that spreads outward.

Some believe that shifting tectonic plates cause rocks to be squeezed along a fault line in the days leading up to an earthquake.

Animals' Reaction to Novel Sensation

According to a study conducted in 2010, this action causes the rocks to release minerals, which then expel ions into the air. According to a 2013 study, the animals then respond to this novel sensation.

Wendy Bohon, a geologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington, D.C., is skeptical of the air ionization idea. She points out that many geologists have tried and failed to find such a signal of impending earthquakes.

The researcher does acknowledge the "amazing things" Wikelski and his colleagues performed to look into the idea that animals may forecast earthquakes.

Researchers from the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, a co-author of the 2018 review, expressed gratitude for the study's ability to measure more than one instance of anomalous behavior. However, a researcher claims that the time limit was still insufficient.

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