The Snakes That Woke Before the Earthquake
In the freezing winter of 1975, snakes came out of hibernation and froze on the snow in northern China. Weeks later, officials evacuated a city hours before a major earthquake.
What was reported
In the winter of 1974 to 1975, people in Liaoning province in north-east China reported strange events: snakes leaving their burrows in the freezing cold, animals behaving restlessly, changes in well water, and growing numbers of small earthquakes.
On 4 February 1975, after a surge of small tremors, local authorities ordered people out of their homes in and around the city of Haicheng. That evening, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck, destroying many buildings. Because so many people were outside, far more lives were saved than would otherwise have been.
Explanations offered
Scientists say the evacuation was driven mainly by the burst of foreshocks, rather than by the animals. Whether animals can sense earthquakes coming is still debated: they may feel tiny tremors or changes in the ground before people do. The method failed a year later, when no warning came before a far deadlier earthquake.
- When
- February 1975
- Where
- Haicheng, Liaoning, China
- Witnesses
- Residents and officials in Liaoning
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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