Why does the ground light shine before an earthquake?

On July 28, 1976, midnight had passed, and the hands of the clock pointed to 3 o'clock in the morning. Tangshan, an important industrial town in northern China, was shrouded in extremely dull air. At this time, people enjoying the cool air outside saw streaks of light coming from the northeast. Colorful beams of light rose up, like powerful signal lights, illuminating the earth as bright as day. Some of these beam shapes spread out in sheets, some were like flying rainbows, some were like light beams rising into the sky, and some were like light beams rising into the sky. The colors of the erratic light beams like a ball are colorful, especially the rare composite colors such as silver, blue, white, and purple, which are dazzling. There are different opinions on the height and the duration. This kind of fireball once caused serious disasters in the suburbs of Tangshan City. Seeing this scene, some primary school students thought it was dawn, so they picked up their schoolbags and walked to school. As a result, they made a joke. The flames dispersed and the earth began to tremble. After a few seconds, Tangshan turned into a Ruins

Why is this?

It turns out that this is a precursor to a strong earthquake, called ground light

Many strong earthquakes are accompanied by glowing lights This special and creepy natural phenomenon has been noticed thousands of years ago. Our country is the earliest country in the world to record earth lights. It was recorded in the ancient book "The Book of Songs Xiaoya at the Turn of October" The strange sound and light phenomenon during the Qishan earthquake in Shaanxi 2800 years ago is written in the book, "The yeye earthquake and lightning made hundreds of rivers boil. The mountains collapsed, the high banks turned into valleys, and the deep valleys turned into mausoleums." Among them, the "Yeye earthquake" The language refers to the shining light on the ground. Because the October weekly calendar written in the book is equivalent to the current August of the lunar calendar, the thunderstorm season in Baoji, Qishan has passed by this time. "October thunder and lightning" is obviously a misinformation. It should be the ground light phenomenon before the earthquake. Later, there are many records about the ground light in other historical materials, such as "the blue light flashes like this", "the sky is as bright as day in the middle of the night", "the sky suddenly turns red in the middle of the night", "the red light chases the city", "the sky "The red light is like a train" and so on, there are countless others

In foreign countries, the light of the earth has also attracted widespread attention. This record was first seen in the "Chronicles" of the Roman historian Tasilon, which records What's more, a strong earthquake occurred in Asia Minor in 17 AD. The book says that before the earthquake, someone saw flashes of fire in the sky. Records of ground lights in Japan are also very early. According to Japanese seismologist Yutaka Yasui, the earliest records of ground lights in Japan can be traced back to 1500. Years ago, unfortunately, this kind of speculation was unsubstantiated. The real record was the "Sandai Chronicle" in 869 AD. When describing the earthquake and tsunami in the Mutsu area, the book mentioned the luminous phenomenon. It was 1,100 years ago. For many years

People have known about using the ground light phenomenon to predict earthquakes a long time ago. One of the six earthquake precursors summarized by ancient Chinese people is that the ground light "is dark in the middle of the night, and the sky is suddenly bright and bright. , no different from the sun, an earthquake is bound to happen." This kind of description has appeared in many books. However, as a strange natural phenomenon, it has been scientifically explored by people. This is the evidence after the 18th century in "Japanese Earthquake Historical Materials" According to records, before the 8.2-magnitude Genroku earthquake on December 5, 1703, a scholar, after studying the strange luminous phenomena in the local sky, warned shogunate officials that there would be severe thunderstorms and earthquakes at night. It is commendable to note the relationship between earthquakes and luminescence. In the mid-18th century, earthquakes occurred frequently in the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, often accompanied by flashes of ground light. When the Royal Society held a meeting to discuss this issue, British scholar Williams Toucre first tried to use surface currents to explain the cause of geoluminescence. Naturally, his understanding was wrong. At the beginning of the 20th century, Italian scholar Rizzo took the lead in conducting a particularly detailed investigation of the earthquake luminescence phenomenon. He investigated the earthquake luminescence phenomenon in Italy in September 1905. The luminescence phenomenon of the Calabria earthquake on August 8 was extensively studied. Under his influence, another scholar, Gary, also extensively collected 148 cases of earthquake luminescence data in Europe, which was published in the "Reports of the Italian Seismological Society" in 1910. Research paper

After the 1930s, the research on seismic luminescence entered a stage of comprehensive development. People no longer doubted the real existence of ground luminescence, and theoretical hypotheses to explain this phenomenon began to emerge. In these studies, Japan is especially leading. After 1965, Japanese scholars Yasui and Kondo Goro Kuribayashi Toru and others used geological

Potential difference to explain the formation of ground light

In 1970, Finkelstein and Powell first discovered the piezoelectric effect of quartz during the earthquake incubation process. Scientists had already discovered in physics experiments that many crystals When squeezed or stretched, opposite charges are generated on two planes. This phenomenon is called the piezoelectric effect. Today, it has been widely used in various electronic devices and instruments, and is also widely used in missiles. Piezoelectric quartz is such a crystal in cutting-edge technologies such as electronic computers and aerospace. Since quartz is widely distributed in the earth's crust, earthquakes are a manifestation of sudden rupture of rock layers due to long-term stress. It is conceivable that the piezoelectric effect must also be produced during the earthquake breeding process. The two scholars concluded that when quartz is regularly arranged in the earth's crust, if the total length of the quartz crystals arranged along the long axis is equivalent to the wavelength of the seismic wave, a seismic electrical effect will occur. If the seismic pressure is 30 to 330 Pa, , it is possible to generate an average electric field of 500 to 5000 volts/cm. This electric field is enough to cause low-altitude discharge phenomena similar to lightning in storms, producing ground light. Because the piezoelectric effect does not necessarily occur when an earthquake occurs, so before an earthquake Earth light can also be seen for several hours

If according to this theory, earth light should only occur in certain areas with a large number of oriented quartz crystals distributed in certain areas. However, in fact, earth light appears. The underground rocks in strong earthquake areas of light are not all quartzite, but a variety of rocks. However, regardless of the nature of the underground rock, there is the possibility of ground light. This actual situation is not consistent with the quartz piezoelectric effect theory. In addition, the quartz piezoelectric effect theory cannot explain the extremely unique "electromagnetic storm" phenomenon observed in some earthquake areas

A strange phenomenon that is more difficult to explain. In 1966, a few hours before the Tashkent earthquake in the former Soviet Union, An electromagnetic storm suddenly occurred over Tashkent. The dazzling white light in the sky was like a magnesium lamp, dazzling people. What is even more strange is that the indoor fluorescent lamp turned on for no reason. Scientists observed that the electron density in the ionosphere reached its peak

The strange characteristics of the ground light this time are obviously difficult to explain with the previous hypotheses

In 1972, Japanese scholar Yutaka Yasui and others proposed the idea of ??"lower atmosphere oscillation". It is believed that because the atmosphere contains various positive and negative ions, the earth has weak conductivity. When gas molecules in the atmosphere are hit by cosmic rays from space and radioactive element rays from the earth itself, these gas ions are charged. Earthquake areas often have Radon is a radioactive substance whose main component is shaken into the atmosphere by earthquakes in the earth's crust. Especially in the medium-acidic rock distribution areas and near faults that contain more radioactive substances, the radon content in the atmosphere will increase significantly, which will also cause atmospheric ions When the conductivity is enhanced, if there is a natural electric field on the ground, a large-scale discharge will be made into the air, making the ground light flicker

After studying the Haicheng earthquake in Liaoning Province, Chinese seismologists discovered that radon was present before the earthquake. The content of radon increases significantly, and the electric ions in the atmosphere also increase significantly. A charge-dense area is formed above the earthquake area. After the conductivity of the atmosphere increases, discharge and luminescence may occur under the action of the ground electric field. Large-area discharges and rays released by radon decay may all occur. Produce fluorescence and make fluorescent tubes shine

This theory of low-altitude atmospheric luminescence is a relatively established hypothesis at present. However, some people believe that the reason why fluorescent tubes shine is related to high-frequency seismic waves during earthquakes

In addition, some people have recently suggested that clay minerals are also one of the sources of ground light; others have re-proposed the relationship between rock friction heat generation and ground light, and have considered the formation of electric fields. None of these views can satisfactorily explain the ground light. The causes of light

According to the existing data, geoglow is a general term for the luminescence phenomenon that has many causes during earthquakes. If we want to completely uncover the mystery of its formation, we must strengthen the scientific observation of geoglow. , in particular, we must use modern advanced technology and equipment to capture various signals related to ground light in a timely manner and carefully distinguish different types. In the end, we will finally understand the secret of ground light

Chinese geophysicist Guo Ziqiang has recently conducted experimental research on rock fracturing and learned that when rock cracks under pressure, it will release a strong electron flow. Before an earthquake occurs, when rock is cracked by the stress of the earth's crust, it will also produce a strong electron flow. These electron flows can pass through the earth's crust. Cracks enter the atmosphere, causing air molecules to

Earth's light is produced by ionization, which is the latest explanation of earth's light in the world