Hi All,

I don't think we can discuss ELF without bringing the VAN group into the conversation. They certainly have stood the test of time and very high criticism for their multi-decade approach to earthquake prediction. Their method is different from the method we discussed earlier in this thread, however, we are still talking about a change in geo-electric phenomena before earthquakes.

I think anyone who has heard an ear tone for a serious earthquake would tell you it has a definite electric sound. Of the hundreds I've heard the Nisqually quake was probably a really good example. Very loud, high pitched and something I could never ignore, even if I wanted to.

The woman who suffered damage to her home in Bennett Valley, not far from me told me that the night before the earthquake happened she said she felt like she had been plugged into an electric current all night. Both of her ears were ringing and she felt electricity all around her. For a person who was literally sitting on top of a fault which was about to take a serious move, that's an interesting statement.

I feel sorry for people who can't hear this sound because it is so intriguing. Anyway, here's an excerpt from the article about the VAN method. I would like to invite you to read the entire report.....Petra

Emerging Interests in VAN
The situation has been gradually, and now rather rapidly, changing. In 1992, American experts on the subject gathered at Lake Arrowhead, California, for a NSF supported Workshop entitled "Low-Frequency Electrical Precursors to Earthquakes: Fact or Fiction?", inviting the VAN- group. After discussing with them, initially skeptic experts came to conclude that "the seismic electric signals observed in Greece are generated in the Earth, and the apparent correlation with earthquakes is promising". On March 5 and 26, 1993, two strong earthquakes hit Pirgos City, Greece. Despite heavy damage of the City, there was practically no loss of life because citizens were prepared thanks to VAN prediction. Such a dramatic success happened several times since 1988. ICSU's Scientific Committee for IDNDR (Sir James Lighthill: chair), became interested in the VAN-method and held, jointly with the Royal Society of London, a special meeting "A Critical Review on VAN" in 1995. Moreover, American Geophysical Union?s Geophysical Research Letters published a special issue "Debate on the VAN" in 1996 (Dr. Robert Geller, ed.). Genuine interest on VAN seems emerging.

In Japan, our group detected geoelectric potential changes highly suspect of precursory signals before large earthquakes, such as M:6.6 Off Noto Peninsula (Feb. 3,1993) and M:7.8 Southwest Off Hokkaido (July 12, 1993) earthquakes although our measuring system was not sophisticated enough to achieve complete noise rejection. Moreover, several research groups in Japan, China, Russia, and USA have been generating many promising results of electro-magnetic precursors in a broad range of frequency and of hydro-geochemical precursors such as notable changes in water level and radon emission. Together with the interesting characteristics of SES stated above, these new findings are presenting really fascinating problems and solving them will open a new horizon in the earth science.

Importance of earthquake prediction has become more apparent by the tragic disaster of 1995 M:7.2 Kobe earthquake. The type of earthquake that hit the City of Kobe can cause enormous devastation for its magnitude especially when its epicenter is close to mega-cities. Whereas it has been recognized that short-term prediction is difficult by the conventional methods, it is hoped that the new approaches like electro-magnetic, hydro-geochemical and GPS geodetic methods may shed new lights in monitoring precursors for this type of inland earthquakes also.

http://yochi.iord.u-tokai.ac.jp/eprc/res/incede/incede2a.html

• Uyeda 1997