Date published: 2006/05/09
The BBC says:
Concentrations of the natural pigment chlorophyll in coastal waters have been shown to rise prior to earthquakes.
These chlorophyll increases are due to blooms of plankton, which use the pigment to convert solar energy to chemical energy via photosynthesis.
A joint US-Indian team of researchers analysed satellite data on ocean coastal areas lying near the epicentres of four recent quakes.
Details of the research appear in the journal Advances in Space Research.
They say that monitoring peaks in chlorophyll could provide early information on an impending earthquake.
The authors say the chlorophyll blooms are linked to a release of thermal energy prior to an earthquake.
Interesting stuff, if the method could ever really be made sensitive enough to give reasonable predictions (before, not after, an earthquake).
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