Mysterious Lights During Napa Quake – Not UFOs, says SETI | VIDEO

By Betty Yu
KPIX
8-27-14

     MOUNTAIN VIEW (KPIX 5) – Several people called the KPIX 5 newsroom after Sunday morning’s magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Napa, reporting mysterious flashes of light in the sky. Witnesses said the strange phenomenon looked like lightning.

Similar flashes of light have been reported in earthquakes around the world, from Japan to Peru.

Friedemann Freund, a scientist with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, said the same thing happened during Sunday morning’s earthquake. And it wasn’t a transformer blowing up or UFOs.

“What they are, are a consequence of the stresses building up deep below the earth, seven miles like in the case of the Napa Valley earthquake,” Freund told KPIX 5.

He calls the phenomenon “earthquake lights,” the quick buildup of stress that causes an electric current to flow to the surface and burst through the earth. This typically happens before or during an earthquake. . . .

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Skeptics and Claims of Earthquake Lights

'Earthquake Lights' Mistaken for UFOs? Scientists Find Rare Records

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Strange Glowing Orbs Seen During Fukushima Earthquake; New Clues to 'Mysterious Lights' | VIDEO

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Strange Glowing Orbs Seen During Fukushima Earthquake; New Clues to 'Mysterious Lights' | VIDEO

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Strange glowing orbs were seen in the sky during the Fukushima earthquake

Clue to earthquake lightning mystery

By James Morgan
BBC News
3-5-14

Mysterious lightning flashes that appear to precede earthquakes could be sparked by movements in the ground below, US scientists say.

     Unidentified glowing objects were spotted moments before major quakes in China and Italy recently.

These flickers could be triggered by shifting soil layers which generate huge electrical charge, say scientists.

Using a tub of plain kitchen flour, they discovered an entirely new physical phenomenon.

They announced their findings at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver.

"Our first suspicion was this has got to be a mistake. There must be something stupid we are doing," said Professor Troy Shinbrot, of Rutgers University, New Jersey.

"We took a tupperware container filled with flour, tipped it back and forth until cracks appeared, and it produced 200 volts of charge.

"There isn't a mechanism I know that can explain this. It seems to be new physics. " . . .

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See Also:

Skeptics and Claims of Earthquake Lights

'Earthquake Lights' Mistaken for UFOs? Scientists Find Rare Records

'UFO lights' May Help Predict Earthquakes

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Skeptics and Claims of Earthquake Lights

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By Robert Sheaffer badufos.blogspot.com 1-7-14

     A very Happy New Year to all!

For some reason, in the first few days of this new Year, skeptics on Facebook seem to be gushing all over claims about supposed "earthquake lights," supposedly caused by piezo-electric effects of rocks being squeezed by seismic forces. Such lights, it is said, might explain many reports of UFO sightings.

You wouldn't know it from what skeptics are saying, but there is nothing new in this. Such claims have been circulating for years. In the 1970s, Canadian scientist Michael Persinger received much publicity for

"his 1975 Tectonic Strain Theory (TST) of how geophysical variables may correlate with sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or Marian apparitions. Persinger argued that strain within the Earth's crust near seismic faults produces intense electromagnetic (EM) fields, creating bodies of light that some interpret as glowing UFOs or The Virgin Mary. Alternatively, he argued that the EM fields generate hallucinations in the temporal lobe, based on images from popular culture, of alien craft, beings, communications, or creatures." . . .

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See Also:

'Earthquake Lights' Mistaken for UFOs? Scientists Find Rare Records

'UFO lights' May Help Predict Earthquakes

Mysterious Lights, UFOs, Sonic Booms, F-16s and an Earthquake

UFO Earthquake Connection? Research Group Investigating

UFOs, Ghost Lights, St Elmos Fire . . . What is The Phenomenon Known as 'The Brown Mountain Lights?'

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'UFO lights' May Help Predict Earthquakes

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By www.authintmail.com
1-6-14

     The rare lights that accompany earthquakes may one day help predict the approach of major quakes, scientists say.

Earthquake lights (EQL) are more likely to occur on or near rift environments, where sub-vertical faults allow stress-induced electrical currents to flow rapidly to the surface, researchers said.

From the early days of seismology, the luminous phenomena associated with some earthquakes have intrigued scholars. Earthquake lights appear before or during earthquakes, but rarely after, they said.

EQL take a variety of forms, including spheres of light floating through the air.

In a detailed study of 65 documented EQL cases since 1600 AD, 85 per cent appeared spatially on or near rifts, and 97 per cent appeared adjacent to sub-vertical faults.

Intraplate faults are associated with just 5 per cent of Earth's seismic activity, but 97 per cent of documented cases of earthquake lights.

"The numbers are striking and unexpected," said Robert Theriault, a geologist with Quebec's Ministry of Natural Resources. . . .

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See Also:

'Earthquake Lights' Mistaken for UFOs? Scientists Find Rare Records

Mysterious Lights, UFOs, Sonic Booms, F-16s and an Earthquake

UFO Earthquake Connection? Research Group Investigating

UFOs, Ghost Lights, St Elmos Fire . . . What is The Phenomenon Known as 'The Brown Mountain Lights?'

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'Earthquake Lights' Mistaken for UFOs? Scientists Find Rare Records

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Scientists find records of rare "earthquake lights"

By Elizabeth Weise /USATODAY
www.13wmaz.com
1-2-13

     They've been mistaken for UFOs or dismissed as hallucinations. Now geologists have collected a near-definitive list of a rare but fascinating phenomenon — earthquake lights.

Certain types of earthquakes in certain areas can set off blazes of light seconds — sometimes days — ahead of the actual quake. These can manifest themselves as floating balls of light, bluish columns shooting up out of the earth and even reverse lightning, reaching up into the sky from the ground.

A study out Thursday in the journal Seismological Research Letters shows such quakes are tied to a specific type of temblor in areas where certain geological formations occur.

While rare, researchers were able to document 65 examples between 1600 and the present.

• Seconds before the 2009 L'Aquila, Italy, earthquake struck, pedestrians saw flames of light 4 inches high flickering above the stone-paved Francesco Crispi Avenue in the town's historical city center.

• In Pisco, Peru, a naval officer saw pale-blue columns of light bursting four times in succession out of the water on Aug. 15, 2007, as an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck. Security cameras in the city captured images of the lights as well.

• On Nov. 12, 1988, a bright purple-pink globe of light moved through the sky along the St. Lawrence River near the city of Quebec, 11 days before a powerful quake. . . .

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Mysterious Lights, UFOs, Sonic Booms, F-16s and an Earthquake

UFO Earthquake Connection? Research Group Investigating

UFOs, Ghost Lights, St Elmos Fire . . . What is The Phenomenon Known as 'The Brown Mountain Lights?'

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE