Here in Oklahoma, we have recently been on the receiving end of numerous swarms of earthquakes. With that comes all sorts of associations, that may or may not be connected. Specifically there seems to be a lot of confusion about a phenomena called Earthquake Lights.
It’s been a recent thing that Scientists were finally able to confirm that yes, this phenomenon is real, thanks to cameras on phones becoming widely available, as well as security cameras. Because for many years this was sort of allocated to the same realm as UFOs and Big Foot sightings.
The kids and I were out one night and we saw something unusual. It was dusk and we weren’t sure if we were seeing meteors, or space trash coming back to earth, or maybe something like earthquake lights. So I decided to peruse youtube to see if perhaps there were visual recordings of similar phenomena.
What I found was disturbing. Huge collections of videos of common atmospheric phenomenon that were labeled Earthquake lights, chem trails, aliens, or HARP related phenomenon. It was really sad. The commentary below the videos, that was immediately visible didn’t seem to help.
I blame the state of Science in public schools for this. I blame that because where else should children learn about the atmosphere?
Be sure and click on the links provided to see photographs and detailed explanations. Then look up once in a while when you are outside. You just might see one of these events.
Most of what appeared were simply Sun Dogs, Iridescent Clouds at high altitudes, and maybe some unusual Aurora Borealis presentations by the looks of it.
So the following atmospheric phenomenon has nothing to do with quakes:
Parahelion or Sun Dogs. This is when there is a refraction of sunlight 22 degrees of the sun in the sky, creating the appearance of mock suns through thin cloud cover. Click on the link to see photographs. This is common atmospheric phenomenon, especially in the winter, even in Oklahoma. It’s more common to see them at Sunset. Though I have seen very bright ones in mid afternoon. Sometimes the phenomenon looks so bright it really looks like little suns or comets, and other times, it looks like a short rainbow of sorts. This is simply the physics of light and nothing more.
Sun dogs typically appear as two subtly colored patches of light to the left and right of the Sun, approximately 22° distant and at the same elevation above the horizon as the Sun. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sun dogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the Sun is close to the horizon. (wikipedia Sundog)
Sometimes the mock suns are gone and all you see is a ring around the sun or moon. This means there is a lot of moisture in the air which we often observe here in Oklahoma before fronts bring rain and/or severe weather. If you see that ring while camping, you might want to check the weather.
Cloud Iridescence: These are some of my favorites. This is when the ice crystals in clouds at a high altitude are similar in size, refracting the light in a way, that makes the cloud look like abalone or mother of pearl. I often see these before big cold fronts and ice storms. Though seeing them doesn’t guarantee bad weather. Like the Halo, it’s good to check sometimes. People often mistake this for some government conspiracy involving HARP or Chem Trails. It’s neither. Just more pretty, atmospheric phenomenon, that again, has nothing to do with earthquakes.
I believe that a lot of people just never look up. It never ceases to amaze me how sometimes, rather large atmospheric phenomenon can occur and people don’t notice if you don’t stand there and point it out. If you aren’t driving, look up once in a while. There are more than just rainbows up there.
Light Pillar: Sometimes when you are out at sunset or sunrise you see a pillar of light at the horizon and no sun or moon. This is just a light pillar. I saw a youtube video showing a light pillar as an earthquake light. It’s just more common atmospheric phenomenon. It’s beautiful but not that uncommon nor linked to anything unusual or paranormal.
The next is a Circumhorizontal Arc also sometimes called a Fire Rainbow. These are beautiful, often vibrant rainbows that appear in a most un-rainbow-like fashion. I have seen and photographed these as well. It’s related to Sundogs, but the colors are more dramatic. Sometimes there are just fragments that appear in the sky, like someone randomly threw one into the sky. Once again, not a chem-trail or HARP or quake related. See also Circumzenithal Arc.
Why make a big deal about this? Because if you want to quantify strange things, you need to identify and eliminate common phenomenon first. And these atmospheric events are indeed common. Not mysterious at all. Beautiful, but completely explainable just like a regular old rainbow.
So what about Earthquake Lights? What do they look like? I found several articles.
Live Science shows what appears to be foo lights or ball lightning appearing on a lake- side in the Yukon. If I had seen this without explanation, first glance I might have thought this was street lights.
Mysterious flashes of electricity known as earthquake lights are more likely to happen near rifts, where pieces of the Earth are pulling away from each other, new research suggests. (Live Science)
The story at LiveScience goes on to state:
The advent of better documentation and video cameras has changed that. For instance, just before the earthquake that struck L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009, bystanders reported flames flickering up from the pavement. Video and eyewitness reports also described several weird light anomalies during the magnitude-8.0 earthquake in Pisco, Peru, in 2007. In one case in the early '70s, luminous drifting globes thought to be possible UFOs when they were observed in Canada's Yukon Territory later were linked to earthquake lights.
The USGS has this to say about Earthquake Lights:
Luminous phenomena reported in association with earthquakes are termed earthquake lights (EQL) if they are thought to be an effect on the natural environment of some physical process associated with the generation of seismic rupture or the propagation of seismic waves. Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL: some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL, whereas others think that at least some reports plausibly correspond to EQL. Phenomena reported as EQL include effects similar to sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and steady glows. Physics-based hypotheses have been proposed to explain specific classes of EQL reports, such as those in the immediate vicinity of the causative fault at the time of a major earthquake.
This is a photo of an Earthquake Light in Napa California just before a 6.0 quake (CBS Bay Area 2014) If this happened in short bursts, this is what Sheet lightning would look like. You can see a flash at about 49 seconds in this video from Peru in 2007.
Which again, this looks more like sheet lightning. This other video from China, looks like “Northern Lights” to me. I am unsure if the earth would produce ionization in a localized area from the ground to cause this phenomenon. Maybe someone with more knowledge can comment. But this is a video labeled or tagged as Earthquake lights. I have seen this also in Oklahoma, but this was (if memory served) just before the quake swarms started occurring. And our largest quake has been a 5.6, nothing like the 6, 7, and even 9 point magnitude quakes that strike in Chile or Japan. And I assumed it was just a rare Northern Lights event happening over Oklahoma. It was so unusual, I pulled over the car to watch it. It was certainly strange looking. The clouds looked like sherbert colors that seemed to throb—which to me screams aurora.
Here is a BBC article with more Earthquake Orbs, from Fukashima quake.
The point here is to show that this earthquake phenomenon is mostly electrical, while these other atmospheric phenomenon are simply the physics of light. One class of phenomenon is caused by stress deep within the earth releasing energy, and the others are caused by the sun or moon shining through various forms of water, creating a light show. Or in the case of Northern Lights, Ionization in the atmosphere reacting with the earth’s magnetosphere—see Solar Mass Ejection, Sun storm, Geomagnetic Storm and Sun Spots.
Science doesn’t ruin mysteries at all. Explanations simply allow us to ask deeper, more probing questions, and make more detailed connections.