Eyewitnesses noticed flashes of bright blue light in the sky shortly before the devastating 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Morocco on Saturday evening (September 9). Video footage of the incident on social networks mercenary Attention Business Insider (BI).
This was related to so-called “earthquake lights,” or EQL, according to experts interviewed by the publication. Previously, these images were recorded before seismic tremors in Mexico City in 2021, in Japan on the eve of the 2022 earthquake and during other tectonic events.
Additionally, there are few records of similar events occurring centuries earlier, until the Japanese Jōgan-Sanriku earthquake in 869. However, scientists considered such evidence to be fiction until sufficient photographic and video evidence of the reality of this phenomenon emerged.
The nature of the formation of “earthquake lights” has not yet been investigated. According to geophysicists from the American SETI Research Institute, the glow in the sky shortly before tremors may appear due to tectonic plates rubbing against each other. This creates a current that ionizes the air in the future epicenter area. However, scientists from the University of North Carolina disagree with this hypothesis, claiming that the friction of the stones cannot create an ejaculation of sufficient force.
Another theory is that there were flashes of lightning in the sky before the earthquake occurred due to short circuits in high voltage lines as early tremors began to shake power poles.
If EQL lights are indeed harbingers of earthquakes, studying them could create an early warning system for impending tectonic disasters, the researchers said.
Earlier seismologists saidHow long can aftershocks last after an earthquake?