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Animals help predict quakes
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-02 08:48
Animals in a northeast China zoo are helping officials predict earthquakes.
The anshan Zoo, named after the city where it is located, in Liaoning
Province, was brought into the city's seismological macro-observation network
this week.
"About one week before an earthquake happens, animals' behaviors would become
obviously abnormal," said Xu Jing, deputy chief engineer of the city's
seismological bureau. The more abnormal the animals act, the stronger the
earthquake would probably be.
The zoo keepers were given a new mission: report to the seismological bureau
whenever they find the animals acting strangely.
Together with the micro-monitoring result done with instruments, the local
seismological administration believes that its earthquake forecasting would
become more accurate.
It is believed that more than 100 kinds of animals can "predict" earthquakes,
including horses, donkeys, pigs, cattle, dogs, cats and chickens. Some are
restless, some are dazed and some change their habits.
China, located between the circum-Pacific seismic belt and the belt ranging
from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas, experiences the most earthquakes in the
world.
Liaoning province has reported three earthquakes measuring above 5.0 on the
Richter scale since 1970. It has succeeded in forecasting one earthquake
measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale which hit Yingkou and Haicheng on February 4,
1975.
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