Dogs Detect China Quake?

[NomadJoe]

Several minutes ago, at preciously 10:27pm, every dog in the neighborhood went crazy, barking madly for about 2-3 minutes, something I have never heard them do before here. Having grown up in California, I have experienced this just before an earthquake as animals can detect the faster P-waves before we can. I was so certain that there was a quake coming that I paused the TV, but didn't hear or feel anything. So I checked USGS and IRIS sites a few minutes later and low and behold they show a magnitude 5.6 occurred at 10:19pm in Southern China, north of Laos, which appears to be about 2500km from Phuket. After looking up the rate at which seismic waves travel, specifically P-waves, (5km/sec) that puts travel time to Phuket at about 8 minutes, or 10:27pm. I didn't think detectible motion, even by an animal, would travel that far. But that can't be a coincidence, can it?

http://earthquake.us...arthquakes/map/

http://www.iris.edu/...&lon=102&lat=26

Edited September 7, 2012 by NomadJoe

[jbrain]

they show a magnitude 5.6 occurred at 10:19pm in Southern China, north of Laos, which appears to be about 2500km from Phuket. After looking up the rate at which seismic waves travel, specifically P-waves, (5km/sec) that puts travel time to Phuket at about 8 minutes, or 10:27pm.

But you know that China is in a different time zone,yes?

[Tywais]

Animals that detect impending earthquakes don't necessarily have more senses than humans; they just have much higher sensitivity. The fact that animals have keener senses than humans is well-documented. Dogs have a remarkable sense of smell, birds can migrate using celestial cues, and bats can locate food with echoes. Elephants can detect faint vibrations and tremors (such as other elephants' footsteps) from fantastic distances.

The mistake is in confusing that higher sensitivity with some unknown -- perhaps paranormal -- power.

News.discovery

[NomadJoe]

they show a magnitude 5.6 occurred at 10:19pm in Southern China, north of Laos, which appears to be about 2500km from Phuket. After looking up the rate at which seismic waves travel, specifically P-waves, (5km/sec) that puts travel time to Phuket at about 8 minutes, or 10:27pm.

But you know that China is in a different time zone,yes?

Yes. 0319 UTC is 2219 ITC (Thai time). I listed all the times using Thai time for simplicity.

[Tywais]

Yes. 0319 UTC is 2219 ITC (Thai time). I listed all the times using Thai time for simplicity.

I did learn something from this exercise and that all of China uses the same time even though it covers 5 time zones. Including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Province - GMT+8 for all of China. Found it interesting.

[NomadJoe]

Animals that detect impending earthquakes don't necessarily have more senses than humans; they just have much higher sensitivity. The fact that animals have keener senses than humans is well-documented. Dogs have a remarkable sense of smell, birds can migrate using celestial cues, and bats can locate food with echoes. Elephants can detect faint vibrations and tremors (such as other elephants' footsteps) from fantastic distances.

The mistake is in confusing that higher sensitivity with some unknown -- perhaps paranormal -- power.

News.discovery

All good, and as you say well documented, but it doesn't answer the question of whether these dogs could have been barking due to this quake. I can't find anything using Google.

[jbrain]

Yes. 0319 UTC is 2219 ITC (Thai time). I listed all the times using Thai time for simplicity.

I did learn something from this exercise and that all of China uses the same time even though it covers 5 time zones. Including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Province - GMT+8 for all of China. Found it interesting.

But that means there should only be 1 hour difference to Thai time, or am I mistaken here.

[NomadJoe]

Yes. 0319 UTC is 2219 ITC (Thai time). I listed all the times using Thai time for simplicity.

I did learn something from this exercise and that all of China uses the same time even though it covers 5 time zones. Including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Province - GMT+8 for all of China. Found it interesting.

But that means there should only be 1 hour difference to Thai time, or am I mistaken here.

You are not mistaken. Thai time is GMT +7. But since USGS lists the time in UTC only (which is the same as GMT btw), for this little exercise the time in China is irrelevant. Only UTC(GMT) and ITC are relevant.

I just can't decide if the dogs were reacting to this quake or not. It would be like a dog in Oklahoma reacting to a moderate quake in Los Angeles. Just doesn't seem possible.

Edited September 7, 2012 by NomadJoe

[F1fanatic]

My dogs didn't bark.

[Tywais]

I've posted details of the quake in the World News. Quake in China Kills 64

[NomadJoe]

My dogs didn't bark.

Actually I don't think mine did either, but I am not sure if they were right outside or off running around. I'm on a pretty a secluded soi and they have free range. But if I were to guess I would say I could hear at least 5-6 dogs barking wildly for a good couple of minutes and coming from different directions. The only other time I have heard that kind of sustained barking was back in California during quakes.

[Guest]

Could have been that but it could have been for example a plane flying above, which you did not notice?

At my home, every now and then when a place is flying over the area one dog start barking and howling.. then all the others join in. Really quite an choir.

Quick look at the planes over Phuket http://panphuket.com/flightradar

Then again if one dog get's hurt or attacked by something, the wave of bars start as well.

And that was my 1000 post.

[NomadJoe]

I'm an idiot. 0319 UTC is in the morning in Thailand/China. I could swear those China quakes weren't on the USGS site the first time I checked, right after the dogs were barking.

[cdnvic]

I've posted details of the quake in the World News. Quake in China Kills 64