Unraveling the Mystery: Telluric Lights & Earthquakes

 Just before a powerful earthquake of 6.8 magnitude shattered Morocco on the evening of September 8, 2023, individuals near Marrakesh recorded an enigmatic glow in the night sky that quickly gained popularity on social media platforms. This glow could be an instance of telluric lights or seismic lights, an optical event that often appears over regions of intense tectonic stress, such as those impacted by earthquakes. But what exactly triggers these widespread flashes of light?

PAST OBSERVATIONS

The correlation between earthquakes and peculiar celestial lights has been acknowledged for hundreds of years. A 2014 paper in the Seismological Research Letters journal documented instances of such luminous sky phenomena in 65 earthquakes between Europe and the Americas throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, long before modern technology allowed us to document the dramatic scenes of earthquakes.

However, systematically researching telluric lights is nearly impossible due to their unpredictability, much like earthquakes themselves. Reliable predictions about when and where they will occur are impossible to make, making it difficult to set up sensitive enough instruments to detect them. Moreover, these flashes can vary greatly in appearance and color depending on the circumstances, sometimes appearing as bright orbs visible for several seconds, other times as quick, lightning-like flashes emanating from the ground, and in some cases, as blue flames rising from the earth. In essence, they don't have universally identifiable traits.

HOW DO THEY OCCUR? 

Several theories have been proposed regarding the origins of telluric lights. Some suggest they result from disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field caused by tectonic stress, while others point to the piezoelectric effect, where rocks containing quartz crystals generate a powerful electric field when distorted in a specific manner.

Friedemann Freund, a physicist at San Jose State University and a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center, explains, "When certain types of rocks are subjected to stress by nature, electrical charges are activated, like switching on a battery in the Earth's crust." This phenomenon is particularly common with basalts and gabbros, rocks that possess tiny faults in their crystals. "Earthquakes aid in the release of these electrical charges, which can combine into a plasma-like state, travel at extraordinarily high speeds, and ignite on the surface, leading to electrical discharges in the air." This could clarify why telluric lights are relatively rare, as the conditions for this to occur are present in less than 0.5 percent of earthquakes.

MAN-MADE ORIGIN.

Another less captivating theory suggests that telluric lights are essentially electrical arcs (continuous electrical discharges) formed when power distribution lines are jostled by an earthquake.

ASSOCIATIONS. 

Lastly, numerous scientists argue that there's no connection between these light phenomena and earthquakes, suggesting that our minds create a link simply because we find comfort in understanding the phenomena we observe.