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: -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-3: -Wildlife experts believe animals’ more acute hearing and other senses might enable them to hear or feel the Earth’s vibration, tipping them off to approaching disaster long before humans realize what’s going on.

Detailed explanation-4: -In Wikelski’s study, animals may have been able to detect earthquakes in advance up to 12 miles from their epicenter, he said. He intends to do more research, potentially into whether the farm animals were reacting to iron levels released in the air by underground pressure.