RESEARCH ABOUT PRE EARTHQUAKE SIGNALS STARTED IN NASA LABORATORIES
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"Contrary to what seismologists do, our work here at the NASA Ames Research Center concentrates on the time before major earthquakes. We try to fully understand the fundamental physical processes that take place in rocks deep in the Earth prior to seismic events. These processes are driven by the ever increasing stress, which the rocks experience under the onslaught of gigantic tectonic forces (Stress = force per unit cross section). Tectonic forces cause continental and oceanic plates to move, to slide past each other or to collide. Rocks deep in the Earth contain dormant electronic charge carriers, e.g. pairs of ions that are tightly bonded together and therefore electrically inactive. These dormant electronic charge carriers are so inconspicuous that, until recently, nobody knew that they even existed. They hold the key to understand what happens before earthquakes. High levels of stress cause rocks to plastically deform. Plastic deformation proceeds by way of atoms/ions in the crystal structure of the mineral grains moving one by one in a zipper-like fashion. This process is described as "dislocation" movement. The moving dislocations cause the dormant electronic charge carriers to "wake up". In other words, when dislocations sweep through mineral grains under stress, the rock "charges up" like a battery and becomes a source of electric current. What is special is the recognition that an electric current can flow out of the stressed rock and spread into the surrounding unstressed rock. This current is carried by a particular form of electronic charge carriers known as defect electrons or holes. Because they are so special they are called positive holes or "pholes" for short. The pholes can propagate through kilometers of rocks. They pass through sand and soil. What interests us in the context of ionization of the air at the rock surface is the electric field which the pholes build up at the rock surface. In a theoretical 1984 paper (in Physical Review B) we calculated this field and predicted that it would reach 1,000,000 Volt per centimeter. Such high electric fields are enough to ionize the air that is in contact with the rock surface. Now, 24 years later, we have been able to demonstrate experimentally that this ionization indeed takes place. We can show that, when we squeeze the rock to near its breaking point, airborne ions are formed at the rock surface at a tune of 1,000,000,000 (one billion) ions per square centimeter per second and more. This is a process never before observed. In fact, seismologists (who seldom have enough physics training to follow this train of arguments or read theoretical papers) will have the tendency to say: "This can't be true." Some will say that the ionization is due to radioactive radon coming out of the ground. Radon of course also causes ionization but its release is spotty and episodic at best. Also the level of ionization in the air caused by radon is generally orders of magnitude less than what can be produced by "our" process. If this stress-induced ionization process occurs in nature (I have every reason to believe that it will occur under the right circumstances), billions of ions in the air will be available to act as condensation nuclei for tiny water droplets (provided the relative humidity in the air is in the suitable range). Where this droplet formation occurs, close to the surface of the Earth or higher up in the atmosphere, will determine whether we are talking about fog or about clouds. Of course, if the relative humidity in the air is too low, droplet condensation may not occur and no fog or clouds will form. Therefore, not every earthquake will be preceded by fog/cloud formation. However, if fog/cloud formation occurs together with other indicators that I have not mentioned here, it can be counted as a pre-earthquake signal." says Dr Freund from NASA....17/4/2008

CLOUD FORMATION ON THE FAULT LINES

Pre-Earthquake Signals Science and Politics
Friedemann T. Freund
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NASA Ames Research Center, MS 242-4
MOFFETT FIELD, CA 94035-1000
Tel (at NASA) 650 604-5183
Tel (at CSC) 650 810-0218
Cell 650 279-8478
e-mail friedemann.t.freund@nasa.gov
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Department of Physics
San Jose State University
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Principal Investigator, Carl Sagan Center (CSC), SETI Institute
December 2007
Large earthquakes cause the death of tens of thousands of people. They cause billions of dollars in economic damage. They are feared
because they strike suddenly. Most seismologists say earthquakes are inherently unpredictable.
Seismologists have traditionally used earthquakes as “flash lights” to illuminate the Earth’s interior. In this area they have done a
marvelous job. Unfortunately the tools of seismology are ineffective when it comes to earthquake prediction. They focus on looking at past
events and calculating the statistical probability of future events over, for instance, the next 7 or next 30 years.
However, earthquakes are preceded by processes that unfold in real time deep in the Earth’s crust prior to seismic events. For major
earthquakes, these processes must be detectable at the Earth’s surface.
It has been known for decades, even centuries, that major seismic events are preceded by signals – a multitude of signals, sometimes
distinct, more often subtle and seemingly unreliable:
(i) Perturbations in the ionosphere 100-300 km above the ground,
(ii) Changes in the atmosphere near the ground and at altitudes up to about 1000 m,
(iii) Enhanced infrared emission from the epicentral region visible in night-time satellite images,
(iv) Low-ultralow frequency electromagnetic emissions recorded all around the globe,
(v) Local magnetic field variations,
(vi) Strange animal behavior,
(vii) and others…
Until now nobody in the science community had been able to unravel the physical processes that lead to a deeper understanding how these
signals, how they are correlated and why they are sometimes seemingly unreliable. However, the last two years have brought major
progress in our insight into the processes in the Earth that seem to generate many, if not all of the pre-earthquake signals listed above.

Key is the discovery that, when igneous rocks are subjected to stress, electronic charge carriers are activated. As a result the
stressed rock volume turns into a battery from where currents can flow out . Every km3 of stressed rock can deliver up to 10,000
–100,000 Amps for extended periods of time. These currents flow through rock, sand and soil. They are not stopped by water.
They probably travel over distances on the order of km or tens of km.
The same charge carriers cause the surface of the rocks – and presumably the surface of the Earth – to become positively charged.
This charge can be strong enough to affect the ionosphere and lead to the widely reported pre-earthquake ionospheric
perturbations .
At the surface the charge carriers also generate steep electric fields, sufficient to ionize the air . The airborne ions can cause the
condensation of water droplets and, hence, cloud formation. Corona discharges can occur that lead to the emission of visible light
and to the emission of broad-band radio noise .
When the charge carriers recombine, they form vibrationally highly excited states that de-excite by emitting mid-infrared photons .
This non-thermal IR emission may be responsible for pre-earthquake “thermal anomalies” captured in night-time satellite images.
Though mainstream science has not yet caught up with the rapid developments at the scientific front, we are well on our way to
solve the mystery of the pre-earthquake signals (Freund, 2007 a/b).

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Freund, F.T., 2003. Rocks that crackle and sparkle and glow – Strange pre-earthquake phenomena.
Journal of Scientific Exploration, 17: 37-71.
Freund, F.T. and Sornette, D., 2007. Electromagnetic earthquake bursts and critical rupture of peroxy
bond networks in rocks. Tectonophysics, 431: 33-47.
Freund, F.T., Takeuchi, A. and Lau, B.W., 2006. Electric currents streaming out of stressed igneous
rocks - A step towards understanding pre-earthquake low frequency EM emissions. Physics
and Chemistry of the Earth, 31: 389-396.
Freund, F.T. et al., 2007. Stimulated thermal IR emission from rocks: Assessing a stress indicator.
eEarth, 2: 1-10.
Freund, F.T., 2007a. Pre-earthquake signals – Part I: Deviatoric stresses turn rocks into a source of
electric currents. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 1–7.
Freund, F.T., 2007b. Pre-earthquake signals – Part II: Flow of battery currents in the crust. Nat.
Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 1–6.
Liu, J.Y. et al., 2006. Seismo-geomagnetic anomalies and M5.0 earthquakes observed in Taiwan
during 1988-2001. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 31: 215-222.