How do animals predict earthquakes?

Earthquake is a tragic natural disaster. Until today, mankind has not found an effective method to predict earthquakes completely. However, it has been found that many animals often have abnormal reactions before major earthquakes.

1976 On the day before the Tangshan earthquake, villagers in Wangdongzhuang, Luannan County, Tangshan area saw big mice running around in the cotton field with little mice, and the little mice bit their tails in sequence and followed them one by one. At that time, someone said, "The mouse moved, but it didn't dare to move." There is a dog in Yingezhuang, Tangshan City. The night before the earthquake, it just wouldn't let its owner sleep. As soon as the master lay down, he came to the floor and shouted, and the master drove him away. He called into the room again and even bit the owner. The master was very angry, picked up a stick and chased him out of the door, and then a big earthquake happened.

Moving the mouse is usually a precursor to an earthquake.

In China, using animal anomalies before earthquakes to predict earthquakes has achieved good results. 1967 On the morning of July 18, the administrator of Tianjin People's Park found that loaches and turtles who usually live under the water kept rolling up and down, and swans kept lifting their feet, but they just didn't get into the water; The Siberian tiger is listless and dull; Tibetan yak rolled on the ground. They immediately reported to the Municipal Earthquake Office and put forward their predictions. Results An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred in Bohai Sea that afternoon.

So, why do animals have abnormal reactions before earthquakes? As we all know, before the earthquake, the rocks in the source area underwent drastic physical and chemical changes under the strong ground pressure, and at the same time, physical phenomena such as sound (mechanical vibration), light, electricity, magnetism and heat were produced.

The phenomenon of ground sound before the earthquake is a well-known fact. In recent years, experimental research and field observation have found that these sounds are caused by rock fracture in the source area. The sound frequency is not only 200,000 ~ 20,000 Hz, but also ultrasonic waves above 20,000 Hz and infrasound waves below 20 Hz. The human ear is slow to respond to ultrasound and infrasound, but some animals are quite sensitive to them. For example, fish can feel infrasound of 1~20 Hz. Before the earthquake, goldfish panicked, screamed and even jumped out of the fish tank, which may be related to infrasound or ultrasonic waves emitted by the source.

Ground light is also a precursor phenomenon of earthquakes. The dazzling light and rich colors on the ground are likely to excite animals. Birds have developed optic nerve, are good at farsightedness and are particularly afraid of colors they have never seen before. The abnormal reaction of birds was very common before the earthquake, which was probably related to land light.

It is a fact that animals can perceive earthquakes in advance. However, the abnormal reactions of animals are not all caused by earthquakes, but also by weather changes, seasonal changes, changes in living environment, improper feeding, fright or other physiological changes. Therefore, the research on the relationship between animals and earthquakes is still in the exploratory stage. Although some causal links have been discovered, the mystery is far from being fully understood.