Natural History Wanderings

BBC Nature reported on how animals often display “strange” behaviors before earthquakes. In 2009 toads abandoned their pond in L’Aquila, Italy days before a quake. In 1975 in Haicheng, China spotted snakes left their burrows a month before a large quake.

Researchers believe that a stressed rocks in the earth’s crust release charged particles that change the chemistry in groundwater. It is believed that the pre-earthquake changes in behavior are due to the animals’ extreme sensitivity to these changes. Further studies may be helpful with developing ways to predict future earthquakes.

Read more at BBC Nature How animals predict earthquakes.