How To Know When An Earthquake is Imminent

“…A Cal Tech seismologist was aware of the natural forces that are working slowly but inexorably under the earth, out of sight, unnoticed, setting off reactions and counterreactions in fragile earth faults deep in the bowels of the earth. There was no reliable way, despite all the scientific research, to predict them — except for the behavior of animals trying to escape the doomed area. Nobody but the horses, dogs, birds, fish, rats and cockroaches, fleeing their forest or city homes, seem to know with certainty when a temblor is about to strike, and then, alas, only a few hours before the event.

In Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the day before a major quake the forest became silent, and visitors wondered at the absence of the chirping birds. They didn’t wonder long. Twenty-four hours later a devastating life-threatening quake shook the wild nature preserve, uprooting trees and buildings and causing widespread damage. Showing some primal connection between animal life — closer to nature than man — and the natural forces brimming under the surface of the earth. And in its heavens.

-Dick Sutphen