How animals predict earthquakes
Found via Naked Capitalism.
Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike.
This, scientists say, could be the cause of bizarre earthquake-associated animal behaviour.
Researchers began to investigate these chemical effects after seeing a colony of toads abandon its pond in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009 - days before a quake.
They suggest that animal behaviour could be incorporated into earthquake forecasting.
The team's findings are published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In this paper, they describe a mechanism whereby stressed rocks in the Earth's crust release charged particles that react with the groundwater.
Animals that live in or near groundwater are highly sensitive to any changes in its chemistry, so they might sense this days before the rocks finally "slip" and cause a quake.
The team, led by Friedemann Freund from Nasa and Rachel Grant from the UK's Open University hope their hypothesis will inspire biologists and geologists to work together, to find out exactly how animals might help us recognise some of the elusive signs of an imminent earthquake.
- Links
A Dozen Things Learned from Sam Zell about Investing and Business (LINK) [I've also recently begun to read a review copy of Tren Griffin's book on Charlie Munger, which will be released next month. It is fantastic. As always, you can pre-order...
- The Worst Crime In History - By Yuval Noah Harari
Excerpt from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind... Link to excerpt: The Worst Crime in History Today, the majority of large animals on planet earth are domesticated farm animals that live and die as cogs in the wheels of industrial...
- Mice Sing To Impress The Girls, Scientists Find
Male house mice produce melodious songs to attract mates, not unlike many birds, according to new research. The ditties are too high-pitched for human hearing, but scientists at Vienna's University of Veterinary Medicine analyzed them and found they...
- Other Video Clips From Omaha
Here are a few seconds of video footage I took in Omaha not related to Berkshire Hathaway. I visited the zoo on Sunday morning. I'm not sure if this gorilla was playful or angry, but he sure knows how to entertain a crowd. .......................
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Bayes' Rule (january 29, 2007)
Fun with Bayes' Rule: Birds and Hamsters Suppose that you've got a truckload of animals in boxes, but you can't actually see the animals. If the animal is a hamster, there's an 80% chance the box is green. If it's a bird, there's...