ODD EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 74, 29 March 1938, Page 4

ODD EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS

Not Imagined, Say Scientists

QBSERVERS who have reported

seeing globes and beams of fire, sparks, luminous clouds, and flashes like lightning in the sky during destructive earthquakes, have finally been cleared of the charge of being victims of an over-active imagination, states Popular Science. The phenomenon does exist, the latest scientific opinion concedes, though its cause remains baffling. “Earthquake lights” were first, reported in the year 89 B.C. Twentyeight years ago, an Italian, Prof. I. Galli, catalogued 148 luminous displays observed during earthquakes. Seismologists remained skeptical, nevertheless, until the great Japanese earthquake of 1930, when two members of the Earthquake Research Institute of Japan witnessed at first hand one of the most vivid examples on record. They supplemented their own observations by those of 1,500 others. Most of the observers saw the night sky lighted up with flashes resembling sheet lightning, but of longer duration. Where the ground rocked most violently, at the centre of the earth-

quake area, lights were seen dancing fitfully in every direction, and a row of balls of fire appeared in one part of the sky. On the east side of Tokio Bay, observers saw beams like auroral streamers radiating from the horizon. In a suburb of Tokio, the landscape was lit up more brilliantly than by moonlight, and in the city itself, objects in an unlit room became plainly visible. Some observers reported the light as pale blue or white others, as reddish or orange in colour. Commencing just before the earthquake, the luminous displays continued until some time afterward, reaching their height at the time of the most severe shocks. Weather records show there was no thunder storm at the time, eliminating lightning as a possible explanation. Sparks from broken high-voltage electric wires could not have been responsible, as the lights were seen in many places where there were no such wires. The luminous displays apparently could be traced only to the earthquake itf elf.