At http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/earthquake-alarm there is an article by Tom Bleier and Friedemann Freund but dates back to December 2005. It refers to the October 2005 Kashmir/Pakistan earthquake in which 70,000 people died and 3 million were left temporarily homeless – and asks, what happened in the weeks and days leading up to the EQ? Earthquake warnings are within reach – but they will not come from the mechanical phenomena such as measurements of the earth’s crust which are the main focus of study but rather, from electro-magnetic phenomena. Signals gathered not only at the surface, but deep below it, and in the ionosphere. Researchers have detected strange lights and odd radio noises in the sky preceding EQs. A light, or glow in the sky, appear to herald an EQ – and an example is given from 1995. It is interesting to note that Paul Devereux was investigating ‘earth lights’ associated with EQs long before this – but so was Freund. Disturbances in the ultra low radio frequency, or radio band, have been recorded (with example quoted from 1989). Lights and radio noises appear to be electro-magnetic disturbance that happens when crystalline rocks are deformed or broken by the slow grinding of the earth that occurs prior to a dramatic slip between rock formations. The cracking creates electric currents in the ground which travel to the surface and into the air.
At www.thunderbolts.info – go to forums and click on ‘electric earthquakes’ which begins with a paper, ‘Natural Hazards and Earth System Science’ which describes three pre-earthquake indicators, i) short bursts of electro-magnetic radiation, ii) a fairly long episode of intense air ionisation on the day before, and iii) accompanied by a wave of ULF magnetic pulsations at the most intense phase of air ionisation. In addition, satellites picked up enhanced infrared radiation from around the EQ location. One of the comments include a paragraph from a reply made by Freund who said the work started decades ago when he first discovered dormant electronic charge carriers that can be brought to life by various processes. One is stress. The paper can be accessed at www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/9/585/2009/nhess-9-585-2009.html (also available in pdf format – key in pdf instead of html).
Freund also has a post www.space.com/searchforlife/090423-seti-earthquake-detection.html that dates back to April 2009.
However, at www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/051221earthquake.htm written in December 2005, ‘Sunspots and Earthquakes’ which is particularly relevant to what some scientists have been saying recently – see Piers Corbyn at www.weatheraction.com for example. Changes in the sun-earth environment effects the magnetic field of the earth and can trigger EQs in EQ sensitive regions of the world. A paper by Freund in Journal of Scientific Exploration volume 17 (2003) has the title, ‘Rocks that crackle and sparkle and glow: strange pre-earthquake phenomena’. The earth’s surface might appear to bulge, water in wells and springs may rise and fall sharply, a ground hugging fog appears, there is low frequency electro-magnetic emissions, EQ lights appear on ridges and above mountain tops, there are magnetic anomalies in the earth’s dipole field, temperatures can diverge by several degrees over wide areas (satellite images), there are changes in plasma density in the ionosphere – and strange animal behaviour. I can remember SIS being interested, 20 years or so ago, in research into animal behaviour preceding EQs as it may explain some of the features of the Exodus plagues. The fact that animals can and do disappear hours before an EQ is not a new idea – but how do they know? The Thunderbolts article goes on to relate EQs to the EU theory and sunspots.