Can oarfish predict earthquakes? Maybe its not as crazy as it sounds-31,oct,2013 Finding a giant oarfish washed up on the beach is a rare occurrence, since the fish is a deepwater species thats rarely seen at all. So when a second oarfish was found just five days later, the rumor mill kicked into high gear. An 18-foot-long (5.5-meter) oarfish carcass discovered on Oct. 13 was considered a once-in-a-lifetime event for beachgoers on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. But that event was followed five days later by a second oarfish, measuring 14 feet (4.3 meters), found on a beach in San Diego County. Now, some are claiming that oarfish washing ashore is a sign that an earthquake will soon follow. Shortly before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, about 20 oarfish stranded themselves on beaches in the area, Mark Benfield, a researcher at Louisiana State University, told LiveScience in an earlier interview. The oarfish is known in Japan as ryugu no tsukai or messenger from the sea gods palace, according to the Japan Times. Dozens of the deep-sea denizens were discovered by Japanese fishermen around the time a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile in March 2010. Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a specialist in ecological seismology, told the Japan Times, Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea. Animals sensing earthquakes These werent the first times researchers suggested links between animal behavior and earthquakes. Indeed, theres a long history of anecdotal reports of pets, zoo animals and wildlife acting very strangely in the days or minutes before a tremor is felt by humans. One famous instance is recorded in the history of Helike, an ancient Greek city. During the winter of 373 B.C., all the mice and martens and snakes and centipedes and beetles and every other creature of that kind in the city left, wrote the Roman author Aelianus. After these creatures had departed, an earthquake occurred in the night; the city subsided; an immense wave flooded and Helike disappeared.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 11:42:19 +0000
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