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NASA Caught Early Signs of China Quake

Eric Bland, Discovery News

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The Sichuan Quake

June 10, 2008 -- Hundreds of miles above the Earth isn't the first place you'd expect to detect an impending earthquake, but that's where NASA and one U.K. company are looking.

The project is based on a controversial theory that may gain traction in light of new findings described in a leaked NASA memo about the May 12 earthquake in China's Sichuan province.

The researchers hope to create a global network of roughly 20 satellites that would scan for telltale activity that some scientists (and old wives) say precedes large earthquakes.

The goal is to create an early warning system that would give up to two weeks notice before a quake anywhere in the world, potentially saving thousands of lives. Current detection systems can give about a maximum of one minute's notice before a major quake and are prone to false alarms.

"Right now we're in the business of disaster monitoring," said Stuart Eves, a researcher at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, the company behind the proposed satellite network.

"We hope to be in the business of disaster avoidance," said Eves.

The proposed, dishwasher-sized satellites could be deployed in two years and would monitor several distinct phenomena, all of which began long ago deep inside the Earth, explained NASA researcher Friedemann Freund, a leading proponent of the theory the project is based on.

At some point, said Freund, much of Earth's rock has soaked up water and later been exposed to extreme heat and pressure inside the Earth. Those conditions break apart the water and create the electrically conductive crystals that exist inside most rocks as well as byproducts such as oxygen.

As pressure builds before an earthquake, Freund's theory goes, the oxygen molecules inside the rocks undergo chemical reactions, creating a positive electrical charge that radiates out toward the Earth's surface.

"It's similar to how an electrical charge radiates through a battery," said Freund.

The charge creates a subtle fluorescent, infrared glow and a magnetic field one to two weeks before a major earthquake.

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NASA Puts Satellites to Test

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NASA Caught Early Signs of China Quake

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NASA Puts Satellites to Test

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