Infrasound, Elephants and Earthquake Detection

mediareport writes "Science News offers a timely antidote to simplistic mumbo-jumbo about the "mythical power" of animal earthquake detection. Anyone intrigued by reports of possible tsunami-avoidance behavior in Sri Lankan wildlife will enjoy this detailed examination of the latest research into low-frequency sound. Elephant rumblings that produce Rayleigh waves are now under serious study for the first time, while others are designing "highly unusual" experiments to test infrasound sensitivity in humans."

Comments

Re:Dead fishes

[Meetch]

Hmmm... I would put it down to fish generally not being particularly bright outside of their day-to-day survival instincts, and as they are generally spread out, not needing to respond to such major events as a tsunami for the species to go on. They'd stay in their usual habitat, and if that local habitat goes, then the inhabitants go with it. Occasionally they'd ride a current, especially if given no choice. If they get washed ashore, bad luck.

What I'd be more interested in is if any, and if so how many, larger sea creatures were dumped ashore. (I believe there were whale beachings in the general vicinity within that general window, but AFAIK it's just coincidental).

I'm no marine biologist, so anyone with facts that support or shoot down my ideas are quite welcome to do so.

Re:Animals don't win Darwins

[R2.0]

There is a difference between constant, repeatable threats, otherwise known as risk, and random, large scale events.

The first human reaction to danger was always to get out of Dodge. But if the danger was repeatable and comprehendable, it got dealt with. If tsunamis happened on a weekly basis, we'd be surfing on them, not dying by the metric ton.

Feel bad for Pets

[superpulpsicle]

What about the animals that couldn't leave the house. They must be horrified to know something bad is coming and are trapped in their own house.

People are Animals

[radtea]

Humans are animals.

All the people saying "No animals were killed, no animal corpses were found" are ignoring this minor fact.

We're not so very long out of the trees that we have had time to lose any mysterious "sixth sense" that most non-human animals have. The only plausible reason for losing it in such a short time would be if it was strongly selected against.

So anyone who thinks non-human animals have some ability that humans don't--other than the fairly obvious things like a low panic threshold and the ability to run faster--needs to provide some explanation of why we don't have it when 50,000 years ago we were just another moderately successful social primate.

--Tom