HELIOLITH

Two weeks of time spent with family in the NY area, reunion with my mom, dad, sister (Talula!), brother, and lots of other relations is ending. I’m grateful to have been able to fly back here & spend time with them during these shortest days of the year. I should have prefaced my absence on the weblog with a brief note that I’d be away. One friend wrote me saying they were concerned that after my last post regarding Linux that my compter might have eaten me or something - ha. I’m taking the Linux thing one step at a time thanks to the guidance of commenters on that entry.

I was surprised to read just now that the December 26th earthquake that the Earth’s axis actually shifted ever-so-slightly, shortening our days by 3 millionths of a second. I stumbled across this in researching the relationship between the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster and animals. It’s hard not to be impressed with the world’s response to the crisis, breaking through modern-day numbness to injustice and suffering, possibly creating peace in areas where war was the norm. Even though, as Boingboing reader Frank notes, “$350 million [in U.S. aid for Tsunami relief] equals 42.27 hours of the cost of the war in Iraq.” Saheli has a great recap, analysis, and a good list of “how can I help?” links on her entry here. To me, it’s clear that the efforts to predict such phenomena are a crucial step in mitigating the toll in lives-lost the next time this happens.

The main subject of this entry is a recap of some of the media coverage of animals’ prescience of the tsunami impact that in many cases, saved them. My underlying question is whether there is any way to learn from the animals and use the same mechanism they use to flee disaster. I’ll open with one report of some tribal peoples on the coast of India who apparently may have done just that… (click–>

According to this India Daily editorial,

According to sources, these tribes moved to higher grounds. So did most animals during Tsunami in South and South-east Asia. The rescue teams are also finding interesting information from these untouched tribal people – they could view and hear the Tsunami coming and they moved to higher grounds way before the Tsunami came and earthquake shattered the islands.

The author denotes an informal correlation between the tribes’ level modernization and their losses to the wave, leading to the conclusion that, “we may be gaining in so called ‘modern technologies’ but we are losing in higher grounds of technical expertise, which may encompass spiritual science and paranormal technologies.” The author speaks of remote viewing periscopes, but I’m not sure what exactly that may mean, whether it is a scientific or another type of tool. (link thanks to Joshua)

I first read about animals escaping the disaster yesterday in Wired News (syndicated from the Reuters wire here) In the story, lack of scientific certainty about the mechanism of animal detection of the tsunami is cited as the reason many people will attribute the animals fortunate response to some metaphysical ability.

Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found. “No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said Wednesday.

Those that are biased against any non-quantifiable explanation such as “a sixth sense” form disparate theories to explain animals’ uncanny foresight. See this vehement rant/reaction as an example. The Australian ran a short synopsis of some of the possible scientific explanations of heightened animal perception of natural phenomena, including infrasound perception, sonar, magnetic fields, and barometric pressure.

Mark Bendeich wrote a wonderful anecdote of how several elephants, “…felt the tsunami coming, and their sensitivity saved about a dozen foreign tourists from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves.” (via Reuters, Khao Lak, Thailand)

I found the most detailed topical analysis and explanation (which credits infrasound perception) in this article by the Herald Sun.

“An earthquake, with the shifting of tectonic plates, generates infrasound at around 2Hz and lower — a long, low wave that travels great distances in the air and under water, but which travels farthest and fastest through the ground,” von Muggenthaler said. “These animals, even fish, could detect this miles and miles away. I’d imagine, with a magnitude of 9.0 on the scale, this earthquake was extremely loud. Even though we couldn’t hear it, I’m sure it was loud to everyone else who is capable of hearing in infrasound.”

Der Spiegel accurately makes the distinction between the larger wildlife that migrated away from the coast just before the giant wave hit, and the death of other more domesticated or city-dwelling animals who were killed. Could it be that animals in the city are simply numb to whatever information the huge wave sent out ahead of time? One commenter (Biohabit) on Aleah’s entry seems to think so, “…domestication dulls the senses (beyond the proven five).” The Scotsman details how many animals were also killed or will eventually die because of the tsunami.

I have not even attempted to delve into the scientific community’s response to the tsunami, which is widespread right now online and in many newspapers and magazines. Was animal aversion of the wave sound-based or metaphysical? If we can discover their mechanism of prediction, can’t we model warning systems on that? I have a strong tendency to credit scientific explanations, but don’t rule out something beyond the material as possibly playing a role. What do you think?