Friday, January 15, 2010

Doggie early warning system



Info at YouTube
:
Sophie is seen 15 seconds prior to the start of the earthquake, looking sharply at the floor and dismissing it. About 15 seconds later she again looks sharply at the floor and bolts to the other end of the room when the rumble starts, trying to locate her owner -- who is not the first person out the door, but the third person out,Jessica. Sophie can be seen directly behind Jessica as her back and tail graze the lower right-hand corner of the screen in the first segment. In the second segment Sophie spotted Jessica coming from the sink where she was washing her hands and ran to catch up. She then escorts Jessica safely down the stairs and out of the building.
What a good doggie.

h/t to JJ of Unrepentant Old Hippie

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to see a print out from the local seismograph to determine if she sensed a measurable bump of if it was something more subtle.

Pretty cool either way..

ellroon said...

Talking over at JJ's (where I picked up the doggie video) about animals reacting to inaudible sound waves and the like. China tried to use animals after one successful warning saved lives. But it didn't work for forecasting other earthquakes.

I remember a story about the San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake where a scientist accidentally recorded an amazing (inaudible) sound wave spike just before the quake hit. Wonder if the dog heard something similar?

It will be nice when we finally figure out exactly what the earth is doing, how to recognize incoming quakes before they happen. I don't doubt we will. After all, continental drift itself has been accepted as a scientific fact for only forty years or so. Look how far we've come since then!