Experiment on the Anomalous Animal Behaviors by Electric Field Effects for detecting Earthquake Precursors

지진전조현상 파악을 위한 전기장 효과에 의한 동물 이상 행동 실험

There are some previous reports that some animals such as rats and birds move in a large group and act abnormally to avoid the large earthquake. This study is to experimentally testify what relations exist between the anomalous animal behavior and electric field effect, which is reported due to the piezoelectric effects in a basement rock before earthquake occurrences. When electric field is applied to the whole bottom of the cage, they show nervous behaviors such as grooming, washing their faces, standing on legs or running around in panic to avoid the electric field. When more strong electric field is applied, they jump with shrieking and mount on the electric line. The rat shows more sensitive anomalous behavior than the bird. Even though the current to the experimental birds and rats is just a few $\mu$A, they react in various ways. The anomalous animal behaviors under the small ground electric field may have some relations to the actual phenomena before great earthquake. This kind of study is quite worthy for the understanding of earthquake precursors.