The surrounding cloud formations just caused it to appear as several "areas", but it's nothing more than a rainbow. A phenomenon seen all over the world having nothing to do with earthquakes.
The surrounding cloud formations just caused it to appear as several "areas", but it's nothing more than a rainbow. A phenomenon seen all over the world having nothing to do with earthquakes.
Earthquake lights have been described as looking like auroral streamers diverging from a point on the horizon. Beams like those from a searchlight have been reported. Other reports describe sheets or circular glowing regions, either touching the ground or in detached clouds above ground.
The luminescence in the sky was 450km from the quake's epicenter however... which stretches that possible relationship.
The problem with topics like this (and others) is that earthquakes are unpredictable. Its thus very difficult to do real science on such posited pre-quake phenomena. The best thing to do is dismiss it because we don't know what it is; in our know-it-all arrogance, we are less than comfortable in not having a definitive answer to stuff.
I don't think its Venus. Or even marsh gas. I doubt it's a secret weapon being tested by al Qaeda.
And, btw, before Shawn et al chimes in, it's not a UFO either ..
Earthquakes are caused by unrest in the subterranean Unicorn cities. These disturbances release rainbows, which, ironically, are regarded by the Unicorns as a noxious waste gas.
Earthquake lights are interesting, but the refraction in the clouds, which isn't all that unusual and almost certainly has nothing to do with the earthquake, not so much.
It's the chemtrails that are killing the bees! But seriously, I've seen a series of vids on YouTube on "earthquake lights". Could be real or not, but I've never seen this effect before in my earthquake zone.
One of the astronauts aboard the international space station accidentally discharged his illudium p-32 space modulator. Unfortunately, this lead to the earthquake.
Take a look at the arc the colors make across the clouds - it looks to me like a sunbow (a solar ring - the sun is at the center of a circular rainbow - rarer than a rainbow where you're facing away from the sun, but I've seen a couple), being projected from behind a dark cloudbank through a hole, onto lighter, fluffier clouds closer to the ground. The shadows on the roof correspond pretty closely with the angle the sun would have to be at to be the center of that arc. Ain't optics fun?
Take a look at the arc the colors make across the clouds - it looks to me like a sunbow (a solar ring - the sun is at the center of a circular rainbow - rarer than a rainbow where you're facing away from the sun, but I've seen a couple), being projected from behind a dark cloudbank through a hole, onto lighter, fluffier clouds closer to the ground. The shadows on the roof correspond pretty closely with the angle the sun would have to be at to be the center of that arc. Ain't optics fun?
Here's a real nice sunbow:
The effect in the video could be part of a malformed sunbow, but it's hard to make out any pattern in the video that looks like a full circular bow. There's a lot of red and orange in the clouds... so perhaps it's local atmospheric pollution (dust particles etc) filtering out the blue end of the visible spectrum? I wonder if the video taken in an area of heavy industry such as a steel works, coal-fired power station or chemical plant etc.? The lower layers of the atmosphere above many parts of China are extremely polluted.
No, there's just no cloud to catch the blue portion of the bow. Think of it this way. You're in a theatre, and a movie is being projected on the screen. You're behind the screen. There is a small hole in the screen, such that you're *not* looking directly through it at the projector. A piece of fluff passes in front of the hole, and captures the light, and you see it.
Sun = projector. Sunbow = movie image. Screen = dark cloud layer. Hole = er, hole. Fluff = small white cloud between you and the dark clouds.
Only a portion of the sunbow is being reflected into your eyes. In this case it just happens to be the red part of it. If the cloud drifted a bit over, you'd see other colors. If it moves out of the way completely, it won't be catching the light any more, and the color goes away.
If you were above the dark cloud layer, you'd see the whole sunbow, just as if you were in front of the screen, you'd see the entire projected image.
No, there's just no cloud to catch the blue portion of the bow. Think of it this way. You're in a theatre, and a movie is being projected on the screen. You're behind the screen. There is a small hole in the screen, such that you're *not* looking directly through it at the projector. A piece of fluff passes in front of the hole, and captures the light, and you see it.
Sun = projector. Sunbow = movie image. Screen = dark cloud layer. Hole = er, hole. Fluff = small white cloud between you and the dark clouds.
Only a portion of the sunbow is being reflected into your eyes. In this case it just happens to be the red part of it. If the cloud drifted a bit over, you'd see other colors. If it moves out of the way completely, it won't be catching the light any more, and the color goes away.
If you were above the dark cloud layer, you'd see the whole sunbow, just as if you were in front of the screen, you'd see the entire projected image.
Fair enough... but re. "no cloud to catch the blue portion of the spectrum" the sky in the camera's view appears to be predominantly overcast, and the colors appear in a what look like small breaks in the cloud layer... so the Sun does appear to be the most likely cause. There also appear to be lighter grey-white colored pieces of even lower cloud (fractostratus-ish or industrial smoke maybe?) drifting underneath the main overcast layer. However, at the end of the video, it's apparent that the sun is shining where the camera is located, and shadows on the roof of the building indicate that the sun angle is high, this is also apparent from a shaft of light seen coming down near vertically (from the camera's point of view that is) from a small hole in the cloud layer. I've seen effects like that in the sky many times, but minus the coloration.
The feed I am getting from liveleak for this video was terrible (stuttering at about 2 frames a second), and the original camerawork is typically unsteady.. so that makes it really hard to hazard a guess at what's going on there.
I'm tempted to go with the most obvious explanation, but that's me.
That kind of hole-in-the-cloud is common up in the Pacific NW of the US. They even have a term for it... a 'sunbreak'. Sometimes from Nov - Feb it's the only sun they get. You can have a solid overcast day, but be standing in a patch of direct sunlight no more than a few meters across that moves across the ground quickly. Larger, slower sunbreaks will put one area in full sun, while everywhere around it is in shade. The camera being in sun doesn't surprise me given the assumed pattern of dark overcast/light stragglers underneath - it's a very common cloud pattern around Seattle.
I'm tempted to go with the most obvious explanation, but that's me.
Same here.
Quote:
That kind of hole-in-the-cloud is common up in the Pacific NW of the US. They even have a term for it... a 'sunbreak'. Sometimes from Nov - Feb it's the only sun they get. You can have a solid overcast day, but be standing in a patch of direct sunlight no more than a few meters across that moves across the ground quickly. Larger, slower sunbreaks will put one area in full sun, while everywhere around it is in shade. The camera being in sun doesn't surprise me given the assumed pattern of dark overcast/light stragglers underneath - it's a very common cloud pattern around Seattle.
I've spent a fair bit of time in NW Europe which has a rather similar climatic regime to Seattle. I've also seen the "hole in the cloud" effect many times, at different times of year and in different weather conditions as well. I've noticed it most in anticyclonic winter weather, where there's a relatively slack pressure gradient where a layer of stratocumulus with a few small breaks is common and allows the sun to form pencil-like shafts of light.
Comments
The surrounding cloud formations just caused it to appear as several "areas", but it's nothing more than a rainbow. A phenomenon seen all over the world having nothing to do with earthquakes.
It's a rainbow!
The surrounding cloud formations just caused it to appear as several "areas", but it's nothing more than a rainbow. A phenomenon seen all over the world having nothing to do with earthquakes.
Yep. So it seems.
Even malformed, discontinuous rainbows don't look anything like what's in that video.
Here's an article relating to "earthquake lights"... such things have been observed before on numerous occasions.
Earthquake lights have been described as looking like auroral streamers diverging from a point on the horizon. Beams like those from a searchlight have been reported. Other reports describe sheets or circular glowing regions, either touching the ground or in detached clouds above ground.
The luminescence in the sky was 450km from the quake's epicenter however... which stretches that possible relationship.
The problem with topics like this (and others) is that earthquakes are unpredictable. Its thus very difficult to do real science on such posited pre-quake phenomena. The best thing to do is dismiss it because we don't know what it is; in our know-it-all arrogance, we are less than comfortable in not having a definitive answer to stuff.
I don't think its Venus. Or even marsh gas. I doubt it's a secret weapon being tested by al Qaeda.
And, btw, before Shawn et al chimes in, it's not a UFO either ..
Come on, people, its science.
Take a look at the arc the colors make across the clouds - it looks to me like a sunbow (a solar ring - the sun is at the center of a circular rainbow - rarer than a rainbow where you're facing away from the sun, but I've seen a couple), being projected from behind a dark cloudbank through a hole, onto lighter, fluffier clouds closer to the ground. The shadows on the roof correspond pretty closely with the angle the sun would have to be at to be the center of that arc. Ain't optics fun?
Here's a real nice sunbow:
The effect in the video could be part of a malformed sunbow, but it's hard to make out any pattern in the video that looks like a full circular bow. There's a lot of red and orange in the clouds... so perhaps it's local atmospheric pollution (dust particles etc) filtering out the blue end of the visible spectrum? I wonder if the video taken in an area of heavy industry such as a steel works, coal-fired power station or chemical plant etc.? The lower layers of the atmosphere above many parts of China are extremely polluted.
Sun = projector. Sunbow = movie image. Screen = dark cloud layer. Hole = er, hole. Fluff = small white cloud between you and the dark clouds.
Only a portion of the sunbow is being reflected into your eyes. In this case it just happens to be the red part of it. If the cloud drifted a bit over, you'd see other colors. If it moves out of the way completely, it won't be catching the light any more, and the color goes away.
If you were above the dark cloud layer, you'd see the whole sunbow, just as if you were in front of the screen, you'd see the entire projected image.
No, there's just no cloud to catch the blue portion of the bow. Think of it this way. You're in a theatre, and a movie is being projected on the screen. You're behind the screen. There is a small hole in the screen, such that you're *not* looking directly through it at the projector. A piece of fluff passes in front of the hole, and captures the light, and you see it.
Sun = projector. Sunbow = movie image. Screen = dark cloud layer. Hole = er, hole. Fluff = small white cloud between you and the dark clouds.
Only a portion of the sunbow is being reflected into your eyes. In this case it just happens to be the red part of it. If the cloud drifted a bit over, you'd see other colors. If it moves out of the way completely, it won't be catching the light any more, and the color goes away.
If you were above the dark cloud layer, you'd see the whole sunbow, just as if you were in front of the screen, you'd see the entire projected image.
Fair enough... but re. "no cloud to catch the blue portion of the spectrum" the sky in the camera's view appears to be predominantly overcast, and the colors appear in a what look like small breaks in the cloud layer... so the Sun does appear to be the most likely cause. There also appear to be lighter grey-white colored pieces of even lower cloud (fractostratus-ish or industrial smoke maybe?) drifting underneath the main overcast layer. However, at the end of the video, it's apparent that the sun is shining where the camera is located, and shadows on the roof of the building indicate that the sun angle is high, this is also apparent from a shaft of light seen coming down near vertically (from the camera's point of view that is) from a small hole in the cloud layer. I've seen effects like that in the sky many times, but minus the coloration.
The feed I am getting from liveleak for this video was terrible (stuttering at about 2 frames a second), and the original camerawork is typically unsteady.. so that makes it really hard to hazard a guess at what's going on there.
That kind of hole-in-the-cloud is common up in the Pacific NW of the US. They even have a term for it... a 'sunbreak'. Sometimes from Nov - Feb it's the only sun they get.
I'm tempted to go with the most obvious explanation, but that's me.
Same here.
That kind of hole-in-the-cloud is common up in the Pacific NW of the US. They even have a term for it... a 'sunbreak'. Sometimes from Nov - Feb it's the only sun they get.
I've spent a fair bit of time in NW Europe which has a rather similar climatic regime to Seattle. I've also seen the "hole in the cloud" effect many times, at different times of year and in different weather conditions as well. I've noticed it most in anticyclonic winter weather, where there's a relatively slack pressure gradient where a layer of stratocumulus with a few small breaks is common and allows the sun to form pencil-like shafts of light.
Not the best example, but something like this:
Same here.
Can you expand on your "mirth" a little.... to clarify?
[Preemption] with examples, if possible[/preemption]
Can quakes produce luminescent phenomena in the sky? Looks like the jury's still out on that one, haven't seen any definitive proof either way.