GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake. Anecdotal evidence abounds of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects exhibiting strange behavior anywhere from weeks to seconds before an earthquake.

Detailed explanation-2: -We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future. USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years.

Detailed explanation-3: -It is still unclear how animals can sense impending earthquakes. Animals may sense the ionization of the air caused by the large rock pressures in earthquake zones with their fur. It is also conceivable that animals can smell gases released from quartz crystals before an earthquake.

Detailed explanation-4: -There are numerous anecdotes about how dogs often start behaving abnormally right before an earthquake, how elephants seem to lose their mind before a landslide, or how sharks movement patterns change before a hurricane or a cyclone .