1. Are you afraid of earthquakes?
2. Can you predict earthquakes?
Animals"and"earthquakes
Elephants are looked on as a sign of good luck in some countries. Over the centuries, they have also been thought to be able to sense earthquakes"and"storms long before humans can. Just before the 2004 South Asia earthquake, elephants were making strange noises. They were so noisy that the workers at a rubber factory were afraid. Also, elephants pulled people in danger out of dangerous places.
This also happened in Haicheng in China in 1975. The population of one million people was ordered by the government officials to leave the city. Many pets were reported missing a week before the earthquake happened. Lots of strange animal behaviour was noticed. For example, snakes crawled out of holes in the ground. Only a small part of the population was hurt or killed.
This is not, of course, a new idea. For centuries, some animals have been thought to have a sixth sense for earthquakes,"and"plenty of signs show that it works. Maybe the sixth sense of some animals will be used in the future to help us protect ourselves. But what these animals can sense remains unknown.
In Japan’s islands, earthquakes often take place. Many people’s lives have been taken away,"and"huge damage has been caused. Teams of scientists in Japan have long studied animals. They want to find out what the animals hear or feel before the earthquake."And"then they can use that as a tool. In fact, this goal hasn’t been achieved yet. No tests have been carried out since the 1970s. Many things lead to animals’ reactions: being hungry, winning a victory against an enemy,"and"so on. So it is often hard to know if their actions are warning signals or something else.
Maybe this will be discovered in the future.