Posts Tagged ‘Northern Lights’

Early Warning for Earthquakes


The massive Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11th 2011 is a humbling reminder of the power of Mother Nature. The exact dynamics of what precise factors trigger an Earthquake has baffled scientists for many years. Despite dedicated research they still seem happen without much warning at all. This costs lives as people are unable to take shelter before the earthquake hits. Some have even theorized a possible connection to solar activity actually “triggering” Earthquakes albeit directly or indirectly by creating localized warming and setting off a chain of events like a form of a butterfly effect scenario. I have an opposite belief in my own humble opinion that perhaps solar activity interacting with the Earths magnetic field might help point us to an early warning system since the behavior of Northern Lights seems at least in my own experience to change prior to an Earthquake. Even during today’s massive Earthquake there was a report in Northern Minnesota of a powerful Aurora Borealis that peaked during the time of the Earthquake. Of course that could very well be a coincidence but I have to admit it is certainly curious and worthy of review.  This subject is something I have pondered many times due to a very strange experience I had back on April 19th 2002 in Upstate NY. I was camping in Franklin County in the northern Adirondacks with a friend of mine. It was a super clear night so there were a multitude of stars visible. It was during this star gazing that something very unusual happened.

Image of Earth's Aurora courtesy of NASA

We could see the Aurora Borealis shining bright green to light blue in the sky. Now I have seen northern lights many times in my life but this was radically different. Instead of having their normal look if a slowly twisting green mist or flame these looked like bands or waves like a massive conveyor belt. The lights began in the northern most point and looked to originate from deep space and at unimaginable speeds grew in size getting closer to Earth and then in a flash whipping across the entire horizon as fast as you could blink. It was as if this banding created an actual belt and the thicker banding features allowed me to see the incredible speeds. This was neither subtle nor brief and went on for hours in fact it was such a long lasting event that I hurt my neck from looking up in the air for so long and finally I had to retire and get some rest. I would guess it was about 3 or 4 am by the time I finally slept with the lights still going strong. Then at 6:50 AM on April 20th 2002 I was awoken to violent shaking. I was in a small camper pulled into the forest at the time and bounced to my feet then staggered to the window and saw something incredible as I watched the trees seemed to be dancing. Branches rattling as the trunks swayed like some kind of a slow moving belly dancer. I was shocked by the event and it took a while for my brain to process what just happened. There was also an aftershock and I was far more awake the second time. So I was ready for it and instantly stared intently into the forest looking at the swaying trees. I watched them dance for several seconds in complete amazement. News reports indicated a 5.1 on the Richter scale.

AP Photo - Kyodo News

Now this obviously was nothing as compared to the massive Earthquake of today “March 11th 2011″ that hit Japan causing the huge Tsunami as we are all watching the tear jerking news footage of the loss of life.

Our hearts go out to the people of Japan and it certainly makes me think there is very much a need for a better “early warning” system for Earthquakes. Back in 2002 after waking to the shake of a 5.1, I had actually forgotten about the amazing northern lights the night before the quake simply because the amazement of what the forest looked like during the quake that following morning. As remarkable as it all was, I was more fascinated by the Earthquake itself.  After the camping trip I heading back to the office to the hustle and bustle of the work week.  A long while passed before I started to reflect back about the strange chain of events.  It came a couple weeks later when I got a call from the friend of mine who was there the day of the quake.  He actually reminded me of the connection of the two events stating “Now that was amazing, lights and quakes all at once”.  Instantly a light bulb in my head had a flash and I theorized that perhaps the strange lights were reacting to a disturbance in the Earth’s Electro Magnetic Field due to the energy of the subsurface plates shifting.

It is certainly possible and seemed to make sense at least in my own opinion. I mean in this case there certainly was a very strange reaction between the Aurora and how it seemed to bounce back out into space. What if there really was something to that? What if the EMF field was pushing the solar particles back into space? Could we monitor the Earths magnetic field as a way to indicate pressure building up? I don’t know the answer to that and can only speculate based on my own personnel experience. I would say that better early warning systems would save lives and that in itself makes it very much worth researching.

Mark Fraser




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