Supposedly seeing mysterious lights in the sky Morocco Shortly before the country passes Earthquake It sparked the interest of social media users. On the platform Xa video from a security camera showing flashes on the horizon has garnered more than 2,600 shares and 11,000 likes.
The story becomes more interesting when we discover that this is not the first time that flashes of this type have been identified before earthquakes and that science has been trying to solve the mystery for a long time, as reports have been recorded since the beginning of the twentieth century. a century.
In the earthquakes that occurred in 2017 and 2021, both in Mexico, Lights similar to those in the aurora borealisAccording to what residents shared on social media and local media reports.
One Stady Published in 2014 in the magazine Seismic Research Letters States that the electrical properties of certain rocks in certain environments may be responsible for this phenomenon.
How does the Richter scale measure earthquakes?
“In the past, people often interpreted [as luzes dos terremotos] Religiously and in the modern era they were thinking about UFOs, although there is a completely rational, physical explanation that we are working on.” Friedman FreundThe study’s co-author and NASA researcher told National Geographic.
How do “earthquake lights” form?
The rock types particularly attributed to this phenomenon are basalt and gabbros, which contain small microscopic defects in their crystals.
In some areas, basalt and gabbros are found in vertical structures called dikes, which form when magma cools along vertical faults. They can reach depths of up to 97 kilometers underground.
When a seismic wave occurs, small electrical charges can be created from the pressure on the crystals. This released energy, according to 2014 research, could be channeled through dams and into the atmosphere.
“When nature presses down on certain rocks, electrical charges are activated, as if you plugged a battery into the Earth’s crust,” Freund says.
Suitable lighting conditions exist in less than 0.5% of earthquakes worldwide, scientists estimate, which explains why this phenomenon is relatively rare.
The theory does not enjoy consensus in scientific circles, and other theories about the reasons for the appearance of lights do not rule out static electricity resulting from broken rocks and the emission of the chemical element radon from the soil.
Freund believes that analyzing a range of factors could help scientists in the future Predicting the approaching large earthquakes.
Source: Byte Editorial
