Earthquake Cloud – Is it reliable to predict the earthquake?

There is no technology that is able to predict earthquake accurately. This condition makes us very vulnerable to be a victim of an earthquake, especially if we live in an area where earthquake often happen. This subject was crossing my mind when I was talking with my colleague this afternoon. He told me that before earthquake, cloud forms a unique pattern which is different with the usual cloud pattern. This cloud is called the earthquake cloud.

Some facts show that there is correlation between the cloud and the earthquake.

• 1995, earthquake cloud formed in Kobe, Japan, 8 days before the earthquake.
• 1993, earthquake cloud formed in Kagoshima, Japan, 1 day before the earthquake
• 2004, earthquake cloud was seen in Niigata just 4 hour before the earthquake
• 2006, earthquake cloud formed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia just a few hours befor e the earthquake.

I think scientifically, there is no strong evidence that the appearance of the earthquake cloud will always be followed by the earthquake. However, there are scientists who have been doing an intensive research on this subject. Dr Zhonghoa Shou from China is one of them. He has been studying this phenomenon for 20 years now. He claimed that from 36 appearance of the cloud, 29 were proven as the earthquake indicator. One of his famous predictions was when he observed the cloud in Bam Iran. Eight teen hours after the cloud formed, a major earthquake happened and more than 370,000 local citizens were died.

The strange behavior of animals is more reliable indicators for me as they can hear and feel any small changes that human can’t detect. However, beyond our knowledge, the earth will always give us signals that we may not understand. That is one reason that we shall never stop to learn.