Scientists are just now coming to realize this? During the original exploration of California in 1769, the Spaniards reached the present-day Santa Ana River in Southern California and noticed that all the birds and animals had disappeared. They immediately took shelter and, sure enough, before long the earth shook so hard it reversed the course of the river. And, having lived on a ranch in Southern California, I can attest to how the livestock alerted us before any quakes came along. Anyhow, read more of this @ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/05/06/animal-tracking-predict-earthquakes/#.VUtz4akutWw
This is great when you're on ranch land but what's your options when stuck in traffic on the Golden Gate bridge or in your office on the 43rd floor? So let's say the cows let us know there will be an earthquake...but we don't know when, or where, or the Richter scale level, etc. but we're required to go about our business of sending kids to school, going off to work, the morning bowling league, etc....what are we to do? Put our lives on hold until the all-clear sounds? I can imagine calling the boss at work and telling them I'm going to stay home for a while until the cows act differently. As a realist I cannot imagine average people doing anything with information like this because their lives simply won't be placed on hold. If a scientist on tonight's news show said there is a 50% chance of a 7.2 earthquake the next day what percentage of people will change their activities? If the earthquake does not happen, what percentage of people will pay attention to the next warning? What happens to the government person who closes the GG bridge all day because the cows say there might be an earthquake and no earthquake occurs? Scientifically I agree it's great to know all that we can know. But when it comes to human behavior I say good luck! BTW; my house is 10 miles from San Andreas Fault and 50 miles from other equally critical seismic faults. I've always known this yet choose to live here. We drive on the bridges and through tunnels and carry on with zero concern. Sure we know that 'some day' there will be a big one but the human problem is every day we don't have one we are reinforced to think less and less about the idea of the big one. This is why it will be very difficult to get humans to react to the behavior of animals or any other information for that matter. I have an earthquake app on my phone and currently have it set to see all quakes over 3.0 in the world...it is amazing how many quakes there are every day on Earth...humans are only along for the ride...
