Earthquake Cloud

[Jet2]

We all know that it's hard to predict Earthquake.
Yesterday a 7.8 Earthquake broke out in China Sichun area.
When searching the news online, I found a thread from a forum (in CHinese) which posted on May 9 talked about someone actually predicted that there would be Earthquake in China closed to Sichun area because he saw the Earthquake cloud in the evening sky.

According to the post, the clouds that predicted Earthquake can be seen under fine weather either in early morning or in the evening. The clouds would be thin and long like a tail, particular in dark or strange bright colour (also, the stranger it looks the serious the Earthquake would be).

The post also said that the term [Earthquake Cloud] was corned by a Japanese expert. And watching the clouds to predict Earthquake has long been used by Chinese and japanese people...

Does anybody has any info about this?
Can science explain this condition?

[Jet2]

These are links I found for those who are interested:

Earthquake cloud, Chinese photographer catch prediction 2 days before earthquake occurred | Pinewood Design
(Just a blog post)

earthquake prediction-meteoquake
(This is very informative)

Terra Research Articles - Earthquake Clouds
This is also quite useful.

[Turtle]

Interesting indeed! A quick Google turned up this article wherin the author attributes the earthquake cloud formation to increased heat from Earth in the area of the impending quake.

Originally Posted by

...When a huge rock is stressed by external forces, its weak parts first break and small earthquakes occur. Table 2 shows that all of the eleven big earthquakes in Southern California between January 1, 1975 and May 31, 1999 have many foreshocks within 10km. Since a strong earthquake produces a huge gap, it is likely that the foreshocks generate small cracks, which reduce the cohesion of the rock. Next, underground water fills in the cracks. Its expansion, contraction, and chemistry further reduces the cohesion.

The external forces cause(Refer to Fig. 15 and 16[4] ) between neighboring particles of rock to move against each other, and the resulting friction generates heat. The amount of heat can be surprisingly large. Scientific analysis of frictional melt and recrystallization of fault-rock indicates that temperatures from 300 - 1500o C can be generated along fault lines[5-8]. ...

Earthquake Clouds and Short Term Prediction

On the other hand, we have some threads here on Earthquake lights and perhaps the earthquake clouds may be electrical effects? :

Piezoelectric earth

Earth conductivity

[Jet2]

More photos here:
Earthquake cloud picture | Standby Tire

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Jet2

More photos here:
Earthquake cloud picture | Standby Tire

I gotta say that these just look like contrails. Is there jet traffic in that area of the photo?

[HydrogenBond]

What makes clouds in the first place is hydrogen bonding. This is what allows clouds to phase separate from the rest of the air. The nitrogen and oxygen don't have this same relatively strong attractive force so we will never see clouds of O2 or N2. The question is what is the reason for the specific cloud shapes at the level of group hydrogen bonding?

One hint can be seen by looking at the extremes of what is possible. Water vapor has no hydrogen bonds, while ice is a very systematic tetrahedral arrangement. Liquid water is in the middle going from dimers, trimers and even far more complicated shapes all the way to the tetrahedral. Clouds may show a range, since they can be part liquid, solid and vapor.

What I see in the earthquake clouds, in a loose way, is a surface tension affect almost like the tension between the surrounding air and the cloud increased. This surface tension implies the cloud's hydrogen bonding energy level has increased. It is not clear whether the cloud increased hydrogen energy on its own, or whether the surrounding air caused the affect.

[Jet2]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I gotta say that these just look like contrails. Is there jet traffic in that area of the photo?

They look alike but actually different.
I think the EQ cloud would stay longer where contrails may fade a bit quicker...

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Jet2

They look alike but actually different.
I think the EQ cloud would stay longer where contrails may fade a bit quicker...

This is not the case. I observe and videograph contrails fairly regularly, and they can persist for hours or dissapate almost immediately. It just depends on the specific atmospheric conditions.

Also, one of the 'earthquake cloud' photos linked to looks like another cloud phenomenon we have discussed here (I'm still looking for link ) called 'gravity waves'.

PS Got it... called 'undular waves': >>Giant Atmospheric Waves Over Iowa

More on gravity wave induced clouds starting at post #172 here: >> Weather Watching

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Jet2

We all know that it's hard to predict Earthquake.
Yesterday a 7.8 Earthquake broke out in China Sichun area.
When searching the news online, I found a thread from a forum (in CHinese) which posted on May 9 talked about someone actually predicted that there would be Earthquake in China closed to Sichun area because he saw the Earthquake cloud in the evening sky.

According to the post, the clouds that predicted Earthquake can be seen under fine weather either in early morning or in the evening. The clouds would be thin and long like a tail, particular in dark or strange bright colour (also, the stranger it looks the serious the Earthquake would be). ...

Here's some new video of a possible 'earthquake cloud' that I read was taken 30 minutes before the quake. Do you understand what they are saying Jet?

YouTube - 30 mins before the 2008 Sichuan...

This clip 10 minutes before:

YouTube - 10 mins before the 2008 Sichuan...

Poster's Channel: YouTube - innison's Channel

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

What makes clouds in the first place is hydrogen bonding. This is what allows clouds to phase separate from the rest of the air. The nitrogen and oxygen don't have this same relatively strong attractive force so we will never see clouds of O2 or N2. The question is what is the reason for the specific cloud shapes at the level of group hydrogen bonding?

One hint can be seen by looking at the extremes of what is possible. Water vapor has no hydrogen bonds, while ice is a very systematic tetrahedral arrangement. Liquid water is in the middle going from dimers, trimers and even far more complicated shapes all the way to the tetrahedral. Clouds may show a range, since they can be part liquid, solid and vapor.

What I see in the earthquake clouds, in a loose way, is a surface tension affect almost like the tension between the surrounding air and the cloud increased. This surface tension implies the cloud's hydrogen bonding energy level has increased. It is not clear whether the cloud increased hydrogen energy on its own, or whether the surrounding air caused the affect.

I have to ask, is there anything hydrogen bonding isn't responsible for?