Lights Before Quake

[Richard]

Someone may have already hit on the subject of light that's been seen just before an earthquake hit,i was talking to someone today and a friend of hers who was driving at the time said there was a purple colour to the sky just before it hit.There was also something on TV a while ago but cant remember the program that showed a security camera that picked up the sky lighting up just before the camera started shaking about.

Ive tried to Google but cant find any info,maybe just me not putting the right words into the search box but does anyone have, or know of a link that can shed some light(excuse the pun)on this little know phenomenon

[Orion]

Wikipedia has an article on Earthquake Light.

[Lukemyster]

Philip Duncan made a article about it. I saw the lights as i woke from the begining of the shake. I have a west facing room towards the epicentre and i saw quick blue flashes. I also know others that said they saw funny lights in the sky before and during the quake too.

http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/w ... ghts-video

http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/e ... -explained

[Richard]

Thanks guys

[Andrew Massie]

It's probably HV conductors swaying within their MAD (minimum approach distance) and arcing onto each other, or to the pylons themselves, which are earthed.

[Manukau heads obs]

so much for animals knowing a quake is about to hit....reports from farmers that had started milking cows....there was no warning..the cows acted completly normal up to the quake struck....

farmers near Darfield desribed a tremoundous booming sound coming from the center of the earth and all around during the quake

nothing mentioned about lights in the sky...

cows on rotary platforms were stuck there as the platform was shaken off the rollers, until it could be jacked up once daylight arrived, and back onto the rollers

I bet there was a lot of muck too!

[Michael]

I think the sound as described would be eerie as much as any lights.

.

farmers near Darfield desribed a tremoundous booming sound coming from the center of the earth and all around during the quake

[jrj]

"I bet there was a lot of muck too!"

most of it from the farmers!

[Richard]

The farmer i was working for yesterday was telling how his 10 sheep dogs went absolutely ballistic a few minutes before the quake,he recons he had never heard them before all making different noises at the same time,some were howling,some barking like there was a intruder and others like they were being beaten up,then they all suddenly stopped just as the rumble started.

[Richard]

It's probably HV conductors swaying within their MAD (minimum approach distance) and arcing onto each other, or to the pylons themselves, which are earthed.

Could well be something in that Andrew,though it has been reported to have been seen just before it hits

[Andrew Massie]

It's probably HV conductors swaying within their MAD (minimum approach distance) and arcing onto each other, or to the pylons themselves, which are earthed.

Could well be something in that Andrew,though it has been reported to have been seen just before it hits

The shockwaves travel at 333 metres per second. This means 3 seconds per kilometre, which would explain the time delay.

A friend of mine who is a senior manager at Orion said he can see online when the big aftershocks were happening, when the grid sensors showed the lights going out in Darfield, Kirwee, West Melton etc on its way away form the epicentre.

My cat was hissing at us Friday night before the M7.1 for no apparent reason (I even checked her for injuries, i was so concerned), then Saturday night (before the two big aftershocks) and also Wednesday morning (before the M5.1). She hardly ever hisses at us normally and doesn't pick anything under M5 apparently!

[Orion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article I mentioned.

[Andrew Massie]

Interesting!

I think the 'discussion' part of that Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Earthquake_light is quite interesting reading. It also links to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5qep7Tb ... ed&search= this clearly shows the short circuit at the 10 second mark drop the power out.

This doesn't account for the pre-electricity times, but it's another subject that could turn into a big arguement... I do know the fault is under 220kV lines, and one of the 220kV conductors came down in the M7.1 quake.

[tgsnoopy]

The shockwaves travel at 333 metres per second. This means 3 seconds per kilometre, which would explain the time delay.

That sounds roughly the speed of sound, I thought the shock waves were somewhat faster due to the higher density of ground material over air. Hearing rumbles before the quake doesn't sound all that logical so I'm wondering if you have a reference for that speed?

[tgsnoopy]

I do know the fault is under 220kV lines, and one of the 220kV conductors came down in the M7.1 quake.

Granted, I've seen photo's of the fault between the pylons/under the lines, but not heard of the conductor down. Any reference?

[jamie]

Our friend that farms down south was getting the cows in at the time. I think he is just south of the Rakaia river or right on the southern edge. He said while he was walking the cows to the shed the cows went bazzurke. So much so it made him hop off the bike because he was so confused. Then it struck. Im not sure if the lights he saw in the distance towards the epicentre were while the ground was shaking but yes he saw did the the lights thats for sure.

[Manukau heads obs]

hummm,maybe then the cows already in the cowshed could not pick up on anything (too much noise etc from the machines)
compared to the cows being walked to the cowshed before the quake?

[Richard]

That link shows a definite short out going by the flash of light.

The main reason why power supply's were initially cut to a number of the affected areas of Canterbury was when the areas transformers had there cut out switches triggered by the internal cooling oils sloping about from side to side which briefly dropping below it and automatically shutting them off.
If the main pylon system had caused a flash it doesn't explain why there was a glow in the sky just before it hit,a pylon cutout flash of light would come from that direction only and during the quake.

Hey Andrew,hopefully no one will and shouldn't get heated up in any discussion involving this or any other topic,its just that's its a fascinating mystery that has no clear answers yet.

[Andrew Massie]

I do know the fault is under 220kV lines, and one of the 220kV conductors came down in the M7.1 quake.

Granted, I've seen photo's of the fault between the pylons/under the lines, but not heard of the conductor down. Any reference?

No, out of the mouth of one of the Orion executives.. Wasn't a big fix apparently.

[Andrew Massie]

The shockwaves travel at 333 metres per second. This means 3 seconds per kilometre, which would explain the time delay.

That sounds roughly the speed of sound, I thought the shock waves were somewhat faster due to the higher density of ground material over air. Hearing rumbles before the quake doesn't sound all that logical so I'm wondering if you have a reference for that speed?

It was a Geologist on Newstalk ZB the day of the quake. I may have got it wrong, sorry, I think he was talking about the sound precluding the movement, which is the Primary or P wave. Sound travels at 333m/s. You're right, tgsnoopy, it DOES depend on the soil density. The motion is the S or secondary wave.

However... Found this awesome link, will answer a lot of questions.. http://eqseis.geosc.psu.edu/~cammon/HTM ... erior.html

[iomkiwi]

hummm,maybe then the cows already in the cowshed could not pick up on anything (too much noise etc from the machines)
compared to the cows being walked to the cowshed before the quake?

If the cows are already in the rotary shed then the ground to them would be rumbling anyway - but it would be a rumble they are familiar with?

[Richard]

If the cows are already in the rotary shed then the ground to them would be rumbling anyway - but it would be a rumble they are familiar with?

No way, many of those rotary shed had there platforms knocked off the central rotating mechanism,the cows would have been lucky if they had been able to even stand up on those platforms,so the rumbling/shaking from this event would had far from been familiar to them.
4.35am and most cows at the time would had been either heading to the sheds or still in there paddocks,wouldn't had been many been milked that early

[Manukau heads obs]

what we are saying is that the cows already in the cowsehd and being milked before the quake struck would not have been able to pick up on any pre quake stuff due to the noise/vibrations from the cowshed

[joecam]

I live in Westmorland my windows look west over the city. When the earthquake struck my wife and I were awake very fast (like most other peole in ChCh) I witnessed 4 welding type of arcs of greeny blue light at ground level in various parts of the city. They were a matter of only a few seconds apart. At the same time at least one part of the city simultaneously went in into darkness as of these lights glowed. Other parts of the city stayed lit up. Now I know it sounds strange but while my house was rocking and rolling I was looking out the window. I film for a living and I am convinced the lights I saw were the elecrical arcing due to the shake. My wife witnessed one arc but she was a little pre occupied wanting to get out of the house ......I did notnotice any bright lights in the sky apart from the normal ambient glow these electrical arcs caused.

Later on in the week I called ino a dog motel in Ladbrooks right beside one of the large land shifts out that way. I asked he owner if the dogs had acted strange before the eathquake, if he was woken up by the anmals barkng etc. He said they were quiet and nothing out of the ordinary happened. There were about 30 dogs in residence at the time

[Richard]

The modern milking shed aren't that noise really,the loudest thing in them would be the radio,so they would have heard it coming.