science

Ring of Fire: Deep-sea fish are rising to surface – is it warning sign of earthquakes?


The appearance of mysterious deep-sea fish washing up on the Ring of Fire’s coast have long been considered ominous harbingers for earthquakes. Legend claims oarfish, dubbed “messengers from the sea god’s palace” in Japanese, will rise and beach themselves ahead of an earthquake. But a seismic scientific study now indicates the appearance of aquatic animals like the oarfish or slender ribbonfish in shallow waters does not mean an earthquake is about to occur.

The landmark research contradicts Japanese folklore that claims deep sea fish sightings predict imminent earthquakes, according to scientists led by Dr Yoshiaki Orihara of Tokai University.

The researchers examined the correlation between rare deep-sea fish sightings and earthquakes in and around Japan.

And they discovered just one event that could was plausibly connected, out of 336 fish sightings and 221 earthquakes.

The authors concluded: “As a result, one can hardly confirm the association between the two phenomena.

READ MORE: Volcano microbe find shows life could have THRIVED on Mars

The study used reams of data from November 1928 to March 2011.

And they also examined records of deep-sea fish appearances up to 30 days ahead of earthquakes and between 30 and 62 miles (50 – 100km) distance from the fish sighting.

The Tokai University researchers also confined their search to earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or larger, since these are the earthquakes that have been linked to “precursor phenomena like unusual animal behaviour in previous reports,” said Dr Orihara.

There were no recorded deep-sea fish appearances before an earthquake of magnitude 7.0, and no earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 6.0 occurred within 10 days of a deep-sea fish appearance.

READ MORE: Is it safe to travel after caution issued

Dr Orihara first became interested in the deep-sea fish myth following Japan’s 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake. If the stories were true, he said, deep-sea fish appearances could be used in disaster mitigation efforts.

Dr Orihara said: “From this motivation, we started compiling the event catalog for statistical study.

“There were some previous papers to survey deep-sea fish appearances.

“However, their reports were insufficient for a statistical study.

READ MORE: Why USGS scientists may fear Yellowstone earthquake

“To collect a lot of events, we focused on local newspapers that have often reported the events.”

The researchers examined a digitised database of newspaper articles to find mentions of the unusual appearance of deep-sea fish that folklore says will appear before an earthquake.

Orihara said that he and his colleagues expect that their results “will have an influence on people who believe the folklore,” and they hope that their findings will be shared throughout Japan.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.