It’s not new information that some wild animals sense earthquakes. This can be seen here at the Earthquake Hazards Program: wild animals are extremely sensitive while humans don’t usually know when they are coming or sense them at all before they arrive. There has long been a belief that animals could sense when an earthquake was coming, and that they had interesting responses and behaviors based on that knowledge. The scientists at Yanachaga National Park in Peru put up cameras for several months in an earthquake prone area to see how the animals would react. The cameras would capture over 10 animal movements a day easily every day, but as the time grew nearer for an earthquake, there were fewer and fewer animal sightings.
Why Animals React Before An Earthquake
Scientists believe that they have an answer for this behavior. There is a release of positive ions in the air when the ionosphere undergoes a disturbance such as it experiences from an earthquake. As wild animals sense earthquakes, the release of these ions affects them, causing them to act in strange ways such as being restless, and trying to flee the affected area.
Scientists can tell there were greater fluctuations in the ionosphere caused by the stressed tectonic plate movement underground. This movement then caused the animals to react in certain ways. During the pre-earthquake period, there was a particularly large rise in the number of positive ions at one point, and it was at this same time that animals exhibited the majority of the strange behaviors.
That wild animals sense earthquake has been explained at National Geographic, which showcases the reaction to what we know as serotonin syndrome. This is caused by a strong rise of serotonin levels in the brain and can cause restlessness, agitated behaviors, and hyperactivity. This is what causes the animals to act the way they do, and causes their natural instincts to flare up and want to run and flee the area.
Ways Wild Animals Can Sense Earthquakes Coming
There are two different waves of activity that occur just before an earthquake through the earth’s surface, a P wave, and an S wave. For the most part, very few humans can actually sense the P wave at all and are usually aware of the S wave which is essentially the beginning of the actual earthquake. The smaller P wave, however, can be sensed by most, if not all, animals. When all of the shifts and changes occur in the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, it definitely bothers the all the wild animals that sense earthquakes in advance. They can also sense these minute changes a long time in advance of the actual event.
When the animals started acting strangely, it was still almost a month before the actual earthquake arrived.
Wild animals sensing earthquakes have given scientists new-found knowledge about this particular natural disaster. Scientists are hoping to harness those abilities and use them to help us humans determine when the next natural disaster will occur so that we too can be ready and as prepared as possible to face whatever comes.
