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 4/10 Good --- blog.foreignpolicy.com http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/feed
Saturday, May 17, 2008 --- 70 days ago http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8867
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Rumors are flying in China about why officials couldn't predict the quake when apparent natural signs were there. Technically, seismologists the world over say they can't accurately predict location and timing of earthquakes, but some in China see it differently.
Eyewitnesses say they observed changes in water levels in the days leading up to the quake, and abnormal animal behavior just prior. Media reports ten days ahead of the quake suggest "several thousand cubic meters of water disappeared within an hour in Hubei [350 miles east of the epicenter], but the [seismological] bureau there dismissed it." Quake mispredictions aren't without precedent; in the 1970s in Tangshan, the seismologists dispatched to check out reports of mysteriously falling well water levels were killed by the very quake they wrote off, according to the AP.
A few days prior to this week's Sichuan quake, a torrent of toads overran Mianzhu city where thousands of people were later killed in the severe tremors. The local forestry bureau did a TV interview before the disaster claiming it was normal breeding behavior which has people particularly angry after the fact. ( Video above.) In Wuhan, 600 miles from the epicenter, a newspaper reported zebras banging their heads against the door, elephants swinging their tusks wildly, and peacocks screeching just before the quake hit. The idea that animals can sense certain things before humans is ... |
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