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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. " . . .
