WaPo Animals at D.C. zoo sensed quake before it hit

[mfcorey1]

Animals at D.C. zoo sensed quake before it hit

The first warnings of the earthquake may have occurred at the National Zoo, where officials said some animals seemed to feel it coming before people did. The red ruffed lemurs began “alarm calling” a full 15 minutes before the quake hit, zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said. In the Great Ape House, Iris, an orangutan, let out a guttural holler 10 seconds before keepers felt the quake. The flamingos huddled together in the water seconds before people felt the rumbling. The rheas got excited. And the hooded mergansers — a kind of duck — dashed for the safety of the water.

For people, it was a lovely, sparkling day for an emergency evacuation. Much of the capital’s workforce had gathered on sidewalks by 2 p.m. The federal government later urged agencies to send non-emergency workers home.

[doc03]

1. The chimpanzees stopped throwing their poop at the

visitors 5 minutes before it struck.

[xxqqqzme]

2. In SoCal, homes will get ants in the showers

and sinks - they are searching for water. I was so aggravated by ants in my kitchen sink until one morning they were gone. I jokingly told my daughter 'Well, I guess we're going to have an earthquake, the ants are gone.' Had a good shaker about 8 hours later.

[dtexdem]

11. Wow, that was some slow-flying poop.

Oh, before the quake struck.

[LibertyLover]

3. My stepdaughter reported that her dogs went crazy just before the quake

- I should add that she lives in Baltimore. I live just south of Annapolis, MD and my dogs didn't notice anything, although the quake did awaken my greyhound from early afternoon nap. She actually stood up on the bed and stretched before lying back down. The whippet ran around some, but that was afterwards. However, in 1979 or 1980, when I was living in New Jersey, I was awakened early one morning by my German Shepherd, who slept on my bed with me. He was very agitated and upset. A minute or two later, I heard an odd sound and then the shaking started. It was a small earthquake from the Ramapo Fault. So I know that some animals can sense quakes before they happen.

[Glimmer of Hope]

4. Here is video of a dog in DC who appears to react before the quake started:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHnZZFKjIWo&feature=player_detailpage

[GusBob]

5. Obvi, much more sophisticated than west coast zoo dwellers

sheesh

[demosincebirth]

7. Welcome

[dtexdem]

12. No, it was just that the quake was too far away from those west coast animals.

;-)

Actually, remember that the DC-zoo animals are Smithsonian Institution animals, so they are superior to other zoo animals. ;-)

[demosincebirth]

6. My chihuahua mix goes batshit five - six seconds before one hits.

[LWolf]

8. In my experience, animals always react before people feel it.

I don't know if it's before the quake actually begins, or before humans register it.

[joeybee12]

9. Most animals somehow know it's coming...scientists wonder if there's

some sort of odor/gas that is released prior that they smell but we humans don't ...in other words, they know animals know a quake is coming, they just don't know why.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Xithras]

13. Most of it is pretty well understood. It's not voodoo, and it's really not a mystery.

This used to be a mystery, but a lot of it is now understood.

An earthquakes P-wave tends to be very small unless you're right at the epicenter, and most humans won't feel them unless they're meditating in a silent room. P-waves are also substantially faster than the more destructive S-waves that come later, and can precede the "felt" quake by anywhere from 10 seconds to a couple minutes, depending on your distance from the epicenter. P-waves move at about 6.5km/s, while the larger S-waves move at about 4km/s through average rock.

A quick lookup shows that it's 135 kilometers from Washington DC to the epicenter, meaning that the P-waves took about 22 seconds to reach the city. The S-waves had only travelled about 88km in the same period, and had just under 12 seconds left before they hit the city.

The animals, which could feel the tinier P-wave tremors, had about 12 seconds warning that the quake was coming before the humans, with our lack of ground sensitivity, soft floors, and shoe-cushioned feet, finally felt it.