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The devastating earthquake that struck Japan this year may have rattled the highest layer of the atmosphere even before it shook the Earth, a discovery that one day could be used to provide warnings of giant quakes, scientists find.
The magnitude-9.0 quake that struck off the coast of Tohoku in Japan in March ushered in what might be the world's first complex megadisaster as it unleashed a catastrophic tsunami and set off microquakes and tremors around the globe.
Scientists recently found the surface motions and tsunamis this earthquake generated also triggered waves in the sky. These waves reached all the way to the ionosphere, one of the highest layers of the Earth's atmosphere.
Now geodesist and geophysicist Kosuke Heki at Hokkaido University in Japan reports the Tohoku quake also may have generated ripples in the ionosphere before the quake struck.
Disruptions of the electrically charged particles in the ionosphere lead to anomalies in radio signals between global positioning system satellites and ground receivers, data that scientists can measure.
Heki analyzed data from more than 1,000 GPS receivers in Japan. He discovered a rise of about 8 percent in the total electron content in the ionosphere above the area hit by the earthquake about 40 minutes before the temblor. This increase was greatest about the epicenter and diminished with distance away from it.
"Before finding this phenomenon, I did not think earthquakes could be predicted at all," Heki told OurAmazingPlanet. "Now I think large earthquakes are predictable."
Analysis of GPS records from the magnitude 8.8 Chile earthquake in 2010 revealed a similar pattern, Heki said. These anomalies also may have occurred with the Sumatra magnitude 9.2 earthquake in 2004 and the magnitude 8.3 Hokkaido earthquake in 1994, he added.
If true, further research could lead to a new type of early-warning system for giant earthquakes.
The anomaly is currently seen before earthquakes only with magnitudes of about 8.5 or larger, Heki cautioned. Still, if researchers can detect what specifically causes this ionospheric phenomenon, it also might be possible to detect precursory phenomena for smaller earthquakes, he said.
Heki did caution that the ionosphere is highly variable — for instance, solar storms can trigger large changes in total electron content there. Before researchers could develop an early-warning system for earthquakes based on ionospheric anomalies, they would have to rule out non-earthquake causes.
Heki detailed his findings online Sept 15 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
© Our Amazing Planet
26 Comments
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Himajin
HAARP, with antennae pointed straight up over Alaska, non-movable, that generates radio waves that don't interrupt local radio broadcasts, moves Japan 70cm.
Uh-huh.........
Wolfpack
A really fascinating discovery. Credit the scientists for making the connection between large quakes and upper atmospheric disturbances.
smithinjapan
If it indeed disrupted the ionosphere 40 minutes before that could prove very useful in helping people get away from potential disaster zones -- or at least brace for the worst.
Jared Norman
cool research, mega earthquakes seem to happen once a year so maybe next time this can be watched for. I don't 40min would be enough time to evacuate
GW
very interesting, might produce a few false alarms then people wud likely ignore but hopefully we will hear more about this, I cud imagine it might provide a tiny heads up but who knows, stay tuned!
Christina O'Neill
This discovery could save many lives, natures early warning system
Himajin
Something was going on...we lived in Miki at the top of a rise at the time of the Hanshin quake. I woke up because the birds outside our bedroom window stopped singing all at once. I looked out and our dog was furiously digging a hole, and the dog across the street that usually barked the entire time it was awake had shut up for the first time in 7 years, and was just sitting. The light level outside was that of sun with cloud cover.....then the quake hit.
It was a few months before I realized that it should have been pitch black that time of morning. I shouldn't have been able to see anything outside.
the_odeman
40 minutes is plenty of time to evacuate. Are you telling me you cant leave your home/work place and head to the nearest park within 40 minutes? For the people on the coast, it might be a bit more difficult to find high ground, but certainly can be done within 40 minutes.
Anyway, hasnt this been reported by the HAARP conspiracy theorists since March? What were they called again? White dragon society or something ridiculous like that...
gogogo
too soon and too lighthearted with no regards for the dead... plus this news story has already been posted on JT before.
smithinjapan
gogogo: This one is far more detailed and provides links. The last one was quite short by comparison.
James Howard
What do ESA advise adout 9.0 earthquake and rotation of Earth....... earth Observer (IOTA).
vinnyfav
It is good to know that scientific advances are being made and that some of these (or at least, this specific one) may lead to better warning systems in the future. Maybe we won't see it by the end of our lifetime, but good news is good news nonetheless.
nath
Smith, it was in other news sites a month ago. And had lots of info. It also listed a video on YouTube. Was quite interesting.
Gretchen Shinoda
The sky above the Chuetsu earthquake was plainly affected by that quake in 2004. The cloud pattern was unmistakable. I am not sure if it was BEFORE the quake hit, but certainly well after . . . .
edojin
Years and years ago it was reported that certain things happened in the sky above where big earthquakes hit. For example, one photo in a Japanese magazine showed a cigar-shaped cloud on the horizon just before a big quake hit. It speculated that this might have been caused by the quake itself. Since then, I sometimes look at the sky in search for odd-shaped clouds that might indicate a temblor is on the way.
serendipitous
Potentially great news. I'll not only be able to finish off my beer before the next big one but throw down a couple more (without spilling) to help me prepare mentally!
Rahonui
Definitely some shady dealings frOm our peace keeping American friends and their HAARP toy.
Tesla came up with this over a century or so ago and claimed he had the harnest the worlds natural electric systems that occur in the upper atmosphere. The guy gave us electricity as we still use it today and has been ridiculed and belittled in the history books as what I can see as a propaganda ploy to hide the toys and weapons he left behind for the Dr Strangeloves of the world to play their power crazed games with.
Check him out I you don't know who he is and check out the power that HAARP can generate and what the boys are doing with it up there in Alaska.
Wow!
Fadamor
PROOF! This is PROOF that earthquakes are the result of alien attacks upon our planet! They fired their invisible ray into our planet and 40 minutes later the crust shifted in response to the assault! :-) Later, if I have some free time, I'll tell you my "Ozawa is the commander of the alien invasion" theory. :-)
Fadamor
Wow already a -1 vote on an obviously humorous "cause" of the disruptions in the ionosphere. But seriously, they DO need to look at whether the disruptions were an indication of an "outside" source moving through the atmosphere and into the crust - just to eliminate all other possibilities. (Gamma or other cosmic rays, etc.)
Himajin
HAARP operates on a level that does not interfere with local radio! IF HAARP could create waves that were strong enough to cause an earthquake strong enough to be classed as the 4th biggest in history, communications around the planet would cease to operate, GPS would be affected. It doesn't knock off FM radio in Alaska when it's operating, and it caused a M9 quake?
HAARP cannot be pinpointed anywhere.
Himajin
Explain 8-9+ quakes before HAARP was invented, there were many in the 1800s in the central US on the New Madrid seismic zone, and in Alaska.....San Francisco, Japan...look up the earthquake history of the Tohoku area, Tokyo, Alaska, all available online. The strongest quake in recorded history in Brazil was in 1964.
Himajin
Check out HAARP on news sites or the HAARP site itself, not The Unhived Mind or some other conspiracy site.....
Too many people nowadays have too little science education. It's damned SAD. Radio waves causing earthquakes. Good God. Interestingly enough, resident ex-pat whackaloon Benjamin Fulford was shrieking about HAARP causing the Japan quake. When he found out it couldn't , he changed his tune to say that a row of nukes planted underwater was the source. Nukes, planted underwater, by agents of the Illuminati, undetected by radar, the Japan Coast Guard, US Navy and all the underwater sensors lining the coast (you can hear a recording of the quake online). Enough nukes to move the island 70 centimeters, this island should be a smoking hole in the seabed, but he has his loyal followers cheering him for 'exposing' the plot.
A whole lot of people need to get a grip.
Shit happens, people....earthquakes have been happening since the dawn of time.
Himajin
40 minutes would be a godsend. How fast and how far you can go depends, of course, on how much debris is clogging the streets, fallen buildings, fires etc.
Yubaru
In comparison to the couple to few minutes that people have now to prepare for an earthquake 40 minutes would be a godsend. It takes time for research to catch up to where practical applications can be made for the general population to utilize. Someone making the potential connection is fantastic, particularly for those living in potentially hazardous earthquake zones around the plant.
Give it time and I'll bet they will find a way to narrow it down from the catastrophic level of earthquakes to the smaller one's as well.
Governments in countries where earthquakes frequently occur should spend the money and jointly research this potentially life-saving advancement in our knowledge of the planet.