Can animals and birds sense an earthquake in advance? The idea that they behave strangely before a quake is not new. Since Roman times people have believed that some animals act oddly before an earthquake. Over the years there have been many accounts of birds, bats, peacocks and other animals moving or behaving abnormally minutes or hours before a quake.

But are these claims scientific? Modern space technology is now looking for the answer.

In 2013 the German space research agency announced that it was launching an international project costing about 19 million euros ($26 million): ICARUS, short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. Run in collaboration with the Russian space agency, its main aim is to trace the migration routes of flying animals.

Under the plan, extremely light tracking tags will be fitted to about a thousand birds and bats. The tags will stay in contact by radio signal with equipment on the International Space Station and report the animals' locations.

ICARUS will be used not only to map migration but also to detect unusual animal behaviour. German ornithologist Professor Martin Wikelski, who is involved in the project, said that for the first time animals would be used as "intelligent sensors" to test whether earthquakes can be detected in advance.

Scientists believe birds and bats can often sense the Earth's magnetic field, an ability that helps them navigate. Whether they can also sense changes in the magnetic field before an earthquake is now the subject of research.

It has been known since the 1990s that the Earth's magnetic field changes before some earthquakes, but why this happens was understood only in 2002.

NASA scientist Friedemann Freund discovered that when underground rocks come under extreme stress, they can generate clouds of positively charged electricity. Just before an earthquake, these clouds create a magnetic field at the Earth's surface that cannot be seen but that animals may be able to sense. For the same reason, mysterious "earthquake lights" are sometimes seen in the sky before a quake.

In some zoos in China and the United States, peacocks and flamingos were seen behaving abnormally before earthquakes. But this evidence is isolated and has not been scientifically verified. When ICARUS observes the behaviour of thousands of animals around the world from space, the mystery may be solved.

On average, more than 100 major earthquakes (magnitude six or above) occur worldwide each year, so at any time a tagged animal could fly near the epicentre of a quake and provide important data.

Scientists caution, however, that it may not be possible to predict earthquakes with complete accuracy using animals. But the research could at least show whether animals really can "feel" an earthquake coming.

In short, the idea that animals and birds sense earthquakes in advance has not yet been proved.

The report is based on The Economist.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.