Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Eart

[kiki5711]

A second early-warning sign the animals might have sensed is ground vibration. In addition to spawning the tsunamis, Sunday's quake generated massive vibrational waves that spread out from the epicenter on the floor of the Indian Ocean's Bay of Bengal and traveled through the surface of the Earth. Known as Rayleigh waves (for Lord Rayleigh, who predicted their existence in 1885), these vibrations move through the ground like waves move on the surface of the ocean. They travel at 10 times the speed of sound. The waves would have reached Sri Lanka hours before the water hit.

Mammals, birds, insects, and spiders can detect Rayleigh waves. Most can feel the movement in their bodies, although some, like snakes and salamanders, put their ears to the ground in order to perceive it. The animals at Yala might have felt the Rayleigh waves and run for higher ground.

Why would they instinctively flee to higher ground—the safest place to be in the event of a tsunami? Typically, animals scatter away from a place where they are disturbed. So, in this case, "away" may have meant away from the sea, and incidentally, away from sea level. Or maybe it's not as accidental as all that. It's easy to imagine that one of evolution's general lessons is: If the ground beneath your feet starts moving, move up and away as fast as you can.

What about humans—where were our red flags? Humans feel infrasound. But we don't necessarily know that that's what we're feeling. Some people experience sensations of being spooked or even feeling religious in the presence of infrasound. We also experience Rayleigh waves via special sensors in our joints (called pacinian corpuscles), which exist just for that purpose. Sadly, it seems we don't pay attention to the information when we get it. Maybe we screen it out because there's so much going on before our eyes and in our ears. Humans have a lot of things on their minds, and usually that works out OK.

[pErvinalia]

this is something I'd have to study up on before I make a judgment.

for example:

When animals predict earthquakes

17 February 2007 by Matt Kaplan
Magazine issue 2591. Subscribe and save

Pictures of spreads from New Scientist magazine

ON THE morning of 26 December 2004, villagers from Bang Koey in Thailand noticed something strange. A herd of buffalo grazing on the beach lifted their heads, pricked their ears and looked out to sea, then turned and stampeded to the top of a nearby hill. For the baffled villagers who chose to follow them, it was a live-saving move. Minutes later, the tsunami struck.

Since then, there have been hundreds of reports of animals seemingly foretelling the catastrophe - not just minutes, but sometimes hours and even days before it occurred. These include tales of bizarre behaviour across a menagerie of wild beasts including elephants, antelopes, bats, rats and flamingos, plus stories of dogs refusing to go for their usual morning walk along the beach. Could these creatures have been sensing early warning signs of the massive earthquake that triggered the Asian tsunami? It is an outlandish assertion, given ...

It's not that animals "predict" it, it's that they have natural sense to knowing something's up, or down, however you want to look at it. So, maybe instead of relying on machines to predict earthquakes, maybe they should be studying animal behavior in those regions in accordance to the climate and past known earth activity, and to keep diary of it all for future reference.

Stories about animals behaving strangely before earthquakes go back well before the Asian earthquake and tsunami. These are always anecdotal accounts that emerge after the event. While there are vaguely possible mechanisms that could explain this phenomenon (e.g. animals detecting increased electromagnetic activity), what is needed before this could be taken seriously as a predictive tool is a database reporting how often animals do something strange and no earthquake occurs, and how often an earthquake occurs when no animals were perceived as acting strange before the event.

The other thing to consider is what would compel them to run up a hill? I can't imagine a behavioural mechanism that specific. Sounds like woo to me.

To get away from the water. Obviously. why else? what part of this sounds like woo?

What, you think they can associate an earthquake with a tsunami, and then conceptualise that they need to ascend in height to avoid the wave? Sorry, but that's woo.

[Faithfree]

The other thing to consider is what would compel them to run up a hill? I can't imagine a behavioural mechanism that specific. Sounds like woo to me.

We would need to know more about the local geography. Maybe up hill was the least complicated or only direction available.

[pErvinalia]

The other thing to consider is what would compel them to run up a hill? I can't imagine a behavioural mechanism that specific. Sounds like woo to me.

We would need to know more about the local geography. Maybe up hill was the least complicated or only direction available.

Yep, that's the only logical explanation. I've got no problem accepting the possibility that animals can sense certain things like an earthquake, but to specifically analyse it and determine the best course of action is fantasy. I suspect it is as you say, they got spooked and just ran. It was a coincidence that they happened to run up a hill.

[odysseus]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

[kiki5711]

What, you think they can associate an earthquake with a tsunami, and then conceptualise that they need to ascend in height to avoid the wave? Sorry, but that's woo.

Well, first of all, if it's an island surrounded by water where else would they run but uphill or inland away from the shores? If the island has a volcano and it's about to erupt, I don't think the animals would be running towards it.

Just common sense.

[mistermack]

Any ability that animals have has been evolved.

Why would the ability to predict an earthquake evolve? What survival benefit would an animal get, from that ability? Especially birds. Why the fuck would they care if an earthquake happened?
For evolution to happen, some benefit must be available to those with certain characteristics, and vice versa.

I can't see the survival benefit of running around mooing, or running uphill, or anything else. It's mainly humans who are at serious danger from earthquakes, because of the stuff we build. Most animals don't suffer.

Sunamis are dangerous to animals, but I can't see what they can do about it. If all the animals made for higher ground, just before a Sunami, I would be impressed, but I've never heard of it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

Or tornadoes. The folks in Joplin would have a good case. Even if they did get fifteen minutes warning, the meteorologists should have prevented the twister.

Say, maybe they could sue the local churches for not interceding with God to send the twister elsewhere, say Arkansas?

[odysseus]

Say, maybe they could sue the local churches for not interceding with God to send the twister elsewhere, say Arkansas?

I like that idea!

[Faithfree]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

If you're in Italy, apparently yes!

[odysseus]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

If you're in Italy, apparently yes!

Until Berlusconi decides otherwise and changes the law.....

[kiki5711]

Any ability that animals have has been evolved.

Why would the ability to predict an earthquake evolve? What survival benefit would an animal get, from that ability? Especially birds. Why the fuck would they care if an earthquake happened?
For evolution to happen, some benefit must be available to those with certain characteristics, and vice versa.

I can't see the survival benefit of running around mooing, or running uphill, or anything else. It's mainly humans who are at serious danger from earthquakes, because of the stuff we build. Most animals don't suffer.

Sunamis are dangerous to animals, but I can't see what they can do about it. If all the animals made for higher ground, just before a Sunami, I would be impressed, but I've never heard of it.

I just posted some article about it several posts back. How have you never heard of it? It's not like some birds in Canada are going to fly backwards because of a tsunami in India. You gotta use some common sense here.

[pErvinalia]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

If you're in Italy, apparently yes!

Don't forget some people wanted to do it in Australia after 10(?) or so people died in horrendous storms in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What a ludicrous case. Does this mean I can sue meteorologists for not predicting my house getting struck by lightning? Jeez....

If you're in Italy, apparently yes!

Cosa ne bruciano con le streghe?

[mistermack]

I just posted some article about it several posts back. How have you never heard of it? It's not like some birds in Canada are going to fly backwards because of a tsunami in India. You gotta use some common sense here.

Yeh, but what you posted isn't evidence, it's the silly stuff you get after every disaster. And coming from a highly superstitious part of the world, it has even less validity.
People make this stuff up all the time, and journalists colour it in.
If you use common sense, you wouldn't give any credence to that sort of stuff, only things that can be verified.
.