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Comment by gms7777 | Hacker News Reader

While I do think the phenomena is really cool, the article states how it may be used to forewarn of earthquakes and bridge collapses. I'm curious how much benefit could be gained from knowing of an earthquake a few seconds in advance?

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A few seconds could shut down reactors, gas lines, slow trains, trigger stop-lights (e.g. preceding tunnels), alarm people in parking decks, etc.

Earthquakes are known to sometimes be preceded by unexplained balls of light much further in advance. If this phenomenon is related, the warning period likely exceeds just a few seconds.

Actually, there's a few seconds (depending on distance from the epicenter) warning already. Body waves ("P" and "S" waves) travel through the earth at a greater speed than surface waves (which are what actually cause damage).

Japan's high-speed rail lines are already programmed to shut down when a significant earthquake is (automatically) detected from body-wave arrivals.

Of course, this only helps if you're not very close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

Also, not to be too pedantic, but "earthquake lightning" has only been reliably documented after or during earthquake rupture. It is a weird and apparently real phenomenon, though.

Only tangentially related, but IR satellite imagery showed a significant, clearly discernable spike in temperature immediately above the epicenter of the Tohoku quake last March, that peaked three days before the quake. That's a lot more than a few seconds' notice, if it's consistent.

I think you're thinking of ionospheric data, rather than IR data.

E.g. http://www.ep.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/~heki/pdf/2011GL047908.pdf

I haven't heard of an infra-red-visible precursor of any sort, at any rate, though I could be very wrong there.

First hit on searching (DDG) for "japan earthquake epicenter infrared":

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424033/atmosphere-above...

HAARP

</tinfoil>

I would love 5 seconds to get further away from a chimney or what have you.

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