Do you think animals can sense disasters such as earthquakes in advance? Have you ever experienced such a moment?

[gayesblog]

It is said that during the earthquake in Turkey, many pets tried to wake their owners. Have you ever experienced such a moment?

[abc3643]

Different species of animals have different sensory capabilities. That is imperative to realize when dealing with animals because how you perceive the world and how they perceive it can be radically different.

As for perceiving earthquakes, there is anecdotal evidence of this going back thousands of years. In particular, one working theory is that many animals perceive P-waves that we generally do not. We perceive the S-waves which is where all the action is. P is for "primary" and S is for "secondary". The P-waves are longitudinal (aka compressional) waves and travel faster than S-waves which are transverse waves (and thus are the real cause of shaking). [A slinky would help explain this better...]

Assuming many animals can detect P-waves, they would have a forewarning of S-waves.

From the Washington Post...
www.washingtonpost.com/.../
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TITLE: Did animals in Turkey, Syria sense the quake early? Here’s the science.
By Leo Sands
February 7, 2023 at 11:10 a. m. EST

Birds flew erratically above snow-capped buildings. Dogs howled loudly. Then, a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria leveled buildings and killed more than 21,000 people.

Social media users claimed that animals were behaving strangely just before the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake and significant aftershocks. While The Washington Post could not immediately verify the footage, the idea that animals can detect powerful earthquakes before humans has been a theory around since at least ancient times.

There is scientific research that supports it. Much in the same way that seismological machines can pick up tremors undetectable to the human body, animals are better equipped to sense tiny foreshocks traveling through the Earth seconds before more powerful earthquake waves barrel through, scientists say. They might even be able to sense them before the foreshocks, some researchers say.

According to the U. S. Geological Survey, abnormal animal behavior in the seconds preceding an earthquake is explained by the difference between two forms of seismic waves. Primary, or P, waves are the first to be emitted from an earthquake, traveling at several miles per second from the epicenter. These are more noticeable to animals, USGS says. P waves are followed by stronger secondary, or S waves, which shake the ground in a rolling motion.

“Very few humans notice the smaller P wave that travels the fastest from the earthquake source and arrives before the larger S wave,” the USGS guidance states. “But many animals with more keen senses are able to feel the P wave seconds before the S wave arrives.”

Initial tremors, detected and analyzed by seismology machines, are also used by early-warning systems to forecast earthquakes — usually with less than a minute of warning. But can animals sense earthquakes even earlier, and better than modern machines? While humans for millennia have anecdotally observed animals seeming to detect earthquakes minutes or hours before they struck, the science is murkier.

One researcher says animals may be able to sense earthquakes even before their foreshocks. “We have a very good indication that animals really feel the precursors of earthquakes, and it’s not seismic activity,” Martin Wikelski, a director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior who led a study on this topic, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

In his peer-reviewed study published in 2020, researchers attached electronic tags to cows, dogs and sheep on an Italian farm to observe their movements over several months when earthquakes were detected nearby. They found that the animals were unusually “superactive,” defined as continuously moving for more than 45 minutes, before seven of the eight major earthquakes detected nearby. The research, conducted with devices that Wikelski described as “basically little cellphones for animals,” suggested that the animals may be able to detect earthquakes potentially more than 12 hours before humans — well before any foreshocks.

The reasons animals reacted unusually are not yet clear, he said. “There are indications that they can tell us something. How they do it, we don’t know yet,” he said. He believes that their ability to sense danger may be related to their ability to communicate with each other.

“The cows initially just froze — they didn’t move at all. And then that got the dogs really nervous, and they started to go crazy, barking. And then the sheep went crazy. And that started, altogether, to make the cows really crazy.”

In Wikelski’s study, animals may have been able to detect earthquakes in advance up to 12 miles from their epicenter, he said. He intends to do more research, potentially into whether the farm animals were reacting to iron levels released in the air by underground pressure.

“There are other factors that these animals seem to grasp — but that is still a black box,” Wikelski said.

However, a 2018 review into 700 recorded claims of abnormal animal behavior before earthquakes called for more evidence before drawing conclusions. Researchers focused on the question of whether animals could have the ability to detect earthquakes before seismic machines. Many historical examples of animals behaving strangely could be explained by seismic foreshocks seconds before the bigger earthquake waves, the scientists behind the 2018 review suggested. Much of the existing evidence, they also noted, was too anecdotal and retrospective to be reliable.

Caught on radar: Thousands of birds took flight minutes before Oklahoma earthquake

There are other high-profile examples, though, from history and the present. One of the earliest anecdotal accounts, attributed to the Roman writer Aelian, details how mice, snakes, centipedes and beetles fled the city of Helike before it was razed by an earthquake and destroyed by a tsunami in 373 B. C.

In 2016, 15 minutes before an earthquake struck Oklahoma, birds took flight in such significant numbers that thousands of them could be observed airborne by radar technology.
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[Adaeva]

I don't know what P waves and S waves are and I don't believe I need to know. It is enough to know that some animals have senses far more acute than humans. Also, I believe your explanation is outstanding. I don't believe animals have ESP.

[PhantomMenace22]

Some animals have senses that are more acute than humans and that those animals get sensory cues that are too subtle for humans to notice.

There's a theory that these animals can sense subtle vibrations from earthquakes before they build up to a level that humans can feel, but the evidence that I'm familiar with suggests that animals can "sense" earthquakes only seconds before they happen-- maybe enough time to run outside, but that's about it.

I can believe that acute senses might give animals a few seconds advance warning of an earthquake. But marine animals miles away predicting something two days in the future? No.

[SEL195]

Apparently they do sense it. Especially birds. Even floods and stuff. I think the only think they can't sense is freak fires. They can even sense rain. They are much more in tune to their environment than us. It has never happened to me personally but I have heard of things as above described.

[KittyKat90210]

Yes, they can sense small environmental changes such as minor seismic activity just before a quake. I don't live in an earthquake-prone area but my friends who do say their dogs always start acting nervous shortly before an earthquake

[Aerissa_Jade]

Sort of, people can too if in tuned. A couple of years ago there was a earthquake about a 180 miles from me. I felt something that made my office chair feel queasy and then 45 seconds later, the very light rumblings of the medium earth quake. Nothing major, but somehow I felt it before it hit, it made me nauseous.

The dogs started barking at the same time, going nuts.

[purplepoppy]

It's just a myth based on stories of owners claiming their dog kept barking or their parrot wouldn't shut up. Scientists in Japan once examined footage from cameras in zoos and pet shops to see if it was true. They found while one animal would make a noise others would not. Or they would be noisy even if there wasn't a earthquake coming. They concluded animals like being noisy and it was owners jumping to conclusions.

[exitseven]

yes there was a 100 year blizzard and the local weather forecast about 6 inches. I looked out in the parking lot and there were dozens of seagulls sitting on the pavement. The next day we had over 30 inches of snow and it was a blizzard of epic proportions.

[Chazmatazz269]

They’re not sensing anything in advance. They’re detecting low level tremors that are otherwise imperceptible to most humans. There are people who are more sensitive than others and can similarly detect earthquakes most of us can’t feel. Problem is we call them crazy and institutionalize them. Meanwhile we imbue pets with superhuman abilities for the exact same behavior. This is how much people hate other people.

[Anonymous]

They have stronger psychic abilities than humans. I am a psychic so I can tell. Some humans predicted it but many more animals did. However it was a US HAARP attack not a natural disaster. There was a man who said it would happen on twitter a few days earlier. He had inside knowledge. This is why the sky flashed weird colours as its energy from the sky. The USA is angry that Turkiye voted no for Sweden joining NATO so they did this.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CQ3KiVUXiu0

https://twitter.com/hogrbe/status/1621479563720118273

[NostalgiaSenpi]

Yes. A lot of species can hear or feel things that we can't. I'd often see my cat hiding into the kitchen cabinets about thirty minutes or so before a thunderstorm. There's a lot of recorded evidence of snakes, rodents, centipedes and other animals leaving areas days to weeks before major earthquakes.

[The_Shadow_Dweller]

It is true that they can sense them. But how will they tell us? This is my question.

Whenever any cat/dog starts making noise, our first instinct is to give then food. Just like a small baby. So, how?

[thegreenyogi]

I deal with animals as part of my job and I live somewhere where tremors do occur and I definitely say without a doubt that animals can sense it if bad weather is approaching or anything that they're scared of so the answer is yes.

[genericname85]

yeah, earth quakes and other natural desasters are actually announcing themself in advance via low frequency infrasonic sound that's outside of our audible spectrum but inside the audible spectrum for some animals like dogs.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

There are pets who do some amazing things when disasters are about to happen, so it all depends on what goes on, This can be true or myths.

[rabbitzzz]

I think it would be easy for engineers to build sensors to detect earthquakes at least 5 minutes in advanced unless it's the source. But I don't know why they don't do it.

[Lynnfriend]

Yes animals rely on their instincts we on the other hand have given most of our up.

[lightbulb27]

yes, they can hear and sense better than we do.

[andreasderjuengere]

It's nothing too unusual: animals have very sharp senses to catch up signals that humans often don't notice.

[Ms_Facesitter]

I believe so. We also have that sixth sense of feeling something is wrong but more often than not we ignore it.

[RavVid]

Not experienced myself. There was a strong earth tremor a year ago but tabby slept through it.

[TacosRAwesome]

Yes somewhat. Recently we had a few mini earthquakes and the family dog wanted to run out. He's a lazy bastard.

[LovingJo]

It's a known fact that they can sense the p-wave, which humans cannot sense before hand.

[HaveNoName]

I need to read about this again but I read many years back that dogs can sense a tremor sooner than we can. I am sure birds also have special senses.

[Snakeyes7]

I think that's true. Probably because they are lower to the ground and they are better able to notice movement underneath.