﻿ What are Earthquake Lights? (Video) | WeatherWatch.co.nz

What are Earthquake Lights? (Video)

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Earthquakes have long been accompanied by the appearance of "bright, luminescent, multicoloured sky glows" that can take place any time before, during, or after the seismological event.

They've been recorded throughout history, but modern science has only started to take them seriously since the photographs of the Matsushiro earthquake lights taken by Yutaka Yasui between 1965 and 1967

There have since been extensive observations of several events, but the phenomenon currently remains unexplained.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan reported seeing 3 or 4 large flashes of light during the Christchurch quake last Saturday.  GeoNet confirmed this phenomena and was keen to hear from others who had seen the light.

More details click here (and 3 short video examples).

 See one example below...flashing occurs around 22 seconds in...from the Peru Quake back in 2007.


This is interesting and I

This is interesting and I never have heard or read about it anywhere else. I have experienced minor earthquakes most of them at daytime, but then how is it possible to know this sudden difference in the light and all? pregnancy symptoms

Earthquake Lights

I am Peruvian of the city where it happened the recording that is displayed (Lima city) my friends who live near the coast of the city , they say that when the transformers had already flown and had complete interruption of electricity in its sector but the lights on the sky continued, even over the sea. in this city never occur lightning. so discard lightning .
Fact: epicenter located on the seabed according u.s.g.s
Unfortunately there are no recordings available to confirm what they told me. I found the next video showing these lights at a great distance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f14pQakxXjc&feature=c4-overview&list=UU_S...

Another sighting!

I seen one of these earlier tonight and didn't think anything of it until my partner mentioned it right after this morning's quake. We are in Woolston and the flash appeared over the CBD way. No clouds, no sound of thunder, about 8 hours before the quake.

Re flashing lights over chch 17th Oct 2012

My daughter and I have just witnessed these tonight. After an Internet search I found this video which is exactly what we have witnessed on and off for past half hour, bizarre.......coming from west/ eastern direction over Christchurch...

Blue lights Rolloston area Sunday Morning 24/3/12

Not sure if anybody else noticed the blue flashes throughout the early hours of Sunday Morning?
I saw them from about 11.30 pm through to about 6.00am.

I recall the same sort of blue flashes the week leading up to the the Sept EQ.

Another weird thing I have notc=iced is before an major EQ our TV will turn itself off for no reason at all. It did this week before the Sept EQ nad the 22nd event. It has just started doing it again!

Earthquake lights over Christchurch

I have also seen something similar to these flashes over the Port Hills viewing from Riccarton (possibly a SE direction viewed from my garden). I saw it occur at approximately 11:30pm on the 15-01-2012. It looked like camera flash, however it illuminated the surrounding clouds. Very unusual.

Flashes of light around Christchurch

I too have seen these lights. And have seen them 3 times this week as well. I live just out of Rolleston in a rural area and the light flashes are coming from towards the West Melton / Darfield direction. These nights it hasn't been stormy or very cloudy and it hasn't rained and does not look like standard lightning.
This week we haven't had any big quakes, just the standard M3, but i am concerned. Has anyone else seen these this week? Any explainations? does it mean we are going to get another big quake?

Blue light, Christchurch

During the 5.3 in Christchurch 21/06/11, I saw a large blue light over the city in the direction of the epicentre. It was very similar to the video of Peru, yet it lasted longer (about 5 secs - without flashing) and was much closer and sharper. Did anyone else see this blue light during the 5.3?

OH thank goodness other

OH thank goodness other people have seen it. I thought I was going nuts seeing the flashes of blue while grabbing kids out of beds and huddling under doorframes on the west side of the house. We live in Rolleston so were very close to the epicentre and the house lit up, which made me initially think of all sorts of electrical damage in the house (sparking, fusing, etc). Nice to know I'm not COMPLETELY insane....

LIghts during/prior an Earthquake

I am also so pleased that I am not the only one that saw flashes of light (before and during the Earthquake in Vanuatu 7.5). The date was August 8th 2010. We were staying on an Island close to Efate. It is welcoming to see evidence that those lights exsist.

I saw a light, it was blue and white and as bright as if someone had turned on a light in a room. This light was visable to me eight hours before the quake happened. .

When the quake happened I saw the lights again. No one else reported seeing them, I do not know if they were just so stressed that they could not recall seeing them, or if it is not everyone that can see them.

After the quake, in Vanuatu a month later I saw a very mild light (simular to the on in Vanuatu). It was eight hours later that an Earthquake occured, in Christchurch New Zealand.

earthquake lights

Yeah, you would have had a great view of it up 7floors! I was in my west facing bedroom so i saw it, and i just agreed with you about the power transformers. But after seing the video on this topic it is definantly what i saw! When the earthquake struck i thought it was more like the world ending because of the whole lights flashing, so it made it quite scary. I really hope scientist put a little more time into this. I wish Christchurch had a streaming weather camera that would of captured it....

Maybe you should do a poll on who saw it. I dont think my mum and brother saw it, because there room facing South-eastish. But it was very quick bright blue flashes. I only saw them once my eyes opened so i wasnt in full focus to study it, but then i just ran for cover:)

Christchurch Earthquake

I awoke to a huge crackling noise (like amplified static). I at first thought it was hail on the iron roof, and said the same when my wife also awoke to the sound. Then wowa, the shaking began and we were jumping out of bed to brace ourselves. So the noise preempted the strike.
My son was awake downstairs in his room and he stated he saw flashes of intense blue lights out of his bedroom window prior to the shaking. Mystery really.

Listening to the radio on the

Listening to the radio on the morning of the Chch quake there were 2 people who called in who reported seeing strange lights out to the west of the city at around 3:30am (about an hour before the quake hit)

Strange Lights before earthquake?

There are some interesting videos on YouTube documenting strange lights in the sky an hour before major earthquake in Sichuan,China in 2008....

Google "HAARP caused earthquake in Sichuan China?"

Interesting, maybe?

earthquake lights

Yes, thats exactly what i saw during the earthquake. Very interesting! I think i saw around 3 flashes aswell. So were you in Christchurch during the quake Philip?

Yep, 7th floor of the Novatel

Yep, 7th floor of the Novatel looking out towards Darfield


Well that must have been

Well that must have been fun!

I did notice luminous clouds in the sky afterwards (well 10 mins after, took a while to find light then dig out through books and shelves without breaking too much). I assumed these were some astronomical sight not usually seen through the light pollution. A while later I got out my camera and tripod and took some time exposures of the unlit sky (one somewhere on flickr, no idea how to link) - but it was a while after by then and starting to lighten up.

Earthquake Lights

My flatmate and I also witnessed this effect during the Christchurch earthquake. We thought it was just powerlines arcing, but maybe there was something more to it. We saw a similar flashes of light to the video in this article.

Also saw blue sparky lights

Also saw blue sparky lights from my bedroom via bathroom window. I live in rural areas, too close to fault line of Canterbury quake's. My husband thought I was mad to mentioned it in the middle of quake!!

Had recently visited a family

Had recently visited a family friend in Scargill (rural North Canterbury) who said she saw weird lights flashing in the surrounding hills during the 7.1 ChCh quake. Have found it interesting to see all these other reports online too.

We saw major flashes of light

We saw major flashes of light that seemed to be either over or behind lyttleton around 10.30-11pm this evening. House mate and I watched it for a while there were at least 10 flashes up to a minute apart. There was no rain and it's not overly cloudy we were both rather confused as to what it was being so bright.