In the recent explanations it has been far from clear to me how the
large electric fields that no doubt build up in the rocks can cause
ionizing effects in the air some distance above the fault. The
explanation would appear to need something like highly directional
electromagnetic radiation to be generated which then interacts with the
air causing the ionisation. Electromagnetic radiation has been
measured, including what might be some very directional emissions.
http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_04_2_warwick.pdf
Nigel
On 09/01/2014 20:41, [email protected] wrote:
In reply to H Veeder's message of Thu, 9 Jan 2014 15:23:02 -0500:
Hi,
[snip]
Mysterious Earthquake Lights Linked to Rift Zones
http://www.weather.com/news/science/mysterious-earthquake-lights-linked-rift-zones-20140107
<<The team found 65 cases that were well documented from North and South
America and Europe. Of those cases, 97 percent seemed to happen at faults
within continental plates, rather than at subduction zones, or the
boundaries where one plate is diving below another. That's despite the fact
that most big earthquakes happen at subduction boundaries.
Instead, about 85 percent of the time, lights seemed to happen at places
where the tops of thecontinental plates buckle, creating fissures, or
rifts, where the Earth pulls apart.>>
...not really surprising. To create the lights, the air needs to be ionized,
which requires high static fields, or fast particles. The piezoelectric effect
produced by moving plates can produce the required fields, but it would be
shorted out by the salt water which usually covers the places where subduction
occurs. On land however the fields can exist.
Regards,
Robin van Spaandonk
http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
