Curious cloud formations linked to quakes?

CAN unusual clouds signal the possibility of an impending earthquake? That's the question being asked following the discovery of distinctive cloud formations above an active fault in Iran before each of two large earthquakes occurred.

Geophysicists Guangmeng Guo and Bin Wang of Nanyang Normal University in Henan, China, noticed a gap in the clouds in satellite images from December 2004 that precisely matched the location of the main fault in southern Iran. It stretched for hundreds of kilometres, was visible for several hours and remained in the same place, although the clouds around it were moving. At the same time, thermal images of the ground showed that the temperature was higher along the fault. Sixty-nine days later, on 22 February 2005, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 hit the area, killing more than 600 people.

In December 2005, a similar formation again appeared in the clouds for a few hours. Sixty-four days later, an earthquake of magnitude 6 shook the region

Guo and Wang suggest that an eruption of hot gases from inside the fault could have caused water in the clouds to evaporate. Another idea is that ionisation may be involved: Friedemann Freund at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, recently demonstrated that when rocks are squeezed, positively charged ions form in the air above. The trouble is that ions usually help to form clouds, not dissipate them.

The authors say that if recognisable cloud formations precede large quakes, they could be used for prediction, but other seismologists are sceptical. "There is no physical model that explains why something would suddenly occur two months before an earthquake, and then shut off and not occur again," says Mike Blanpied of the US Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19826514.600-curious-cloud-formations-linked-to-quakes.html

It would be wonderful if this pans out as a tool to help predict quakes.

Bam Earthquake Prediction & Space Technology

Zhonghao Shou
Darrell Harrington
Earthquake Prediction Center
500E 63rd 19K, New York, NY 10021
http://quake.exit.com

Introduction

snip

Shou used such a cloud (see Fig. 1) to predict the Bam earthquake of Dec. 26, 2003 to the public. Coarse and fine predictions were made public on the internet (@1) at 17:58 UTC, Dec. 25, 2003. The fine prediction stated that there would be an earthquake of magnitude more than or equal to 5.5 within 60 days along a fault described in Fig. 1, while the coarse prediction allowed magnitude 5 and above, within 98 days. The Bam earthquake occurred precisely on the predicted fault, and its magnitude was within the predicted magnitude windows.


Figure1. the Bam Earthquake Cloud

This image of IndoEx satellite (@2) shows an earthquake cloud emerging from fault AB on Dec. 21, 2003, marked by a white arrow, by which Shou predicted an M5.5 or bigger earthquake in Fault AB within 60 days on Dec. 25, 2003 to the public (@1). On Dec. 26, an earthquake of 6.8 Ms happened in Bam (28.99N, 58.29E), Iran (marked by *), exactly where the cloud had emerged.

snip

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/proceedings/tehran/p_session2/bam.htm


And of course, Varahamihira (505 – 587) noted the phenomenon.

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

Atlantic City, NJ, and sure enough there was a wee little quake in VA or NC not long after.

And, yeah, WOW!