What organs of fish could perceive even minor vibrations preceding strong shocks?

Firstly, the swim bladder, which can serve as vibration resonators. The walls of the swim bladder have a curvature that facilitates the greatest resonance of infrasonic waves, which a person cannot hear. Physicists note that before an impending disaster, infrasonic waves appear, acting on the nervous system of animals and even humans. That is why, immediately before an earthquake, a strange silence reigns, when the violent reaction of insects, birds and animals gives way to general depression: the cries of animals and birds are no longer heard. Perhaps fish perceive these infrasounds in the depths and strive to leave them as quickly as possible.

Scientists have discovered a new “sense” in fish, called seismic hearing. The lateral line of fish is literally dotted with electroreceptors capable of receiving the external electric field surrounding them or the electric field generated by them themselves. In addition, the lateral line is configured to receive low-frequency water vibrations and contributes to the perception of low-frequency bottom vibrations and infrasounds as harbingers of an earthquake. It is known that so-called telluric currents constantly circulate in the earth's shell and on the eve of earthquakes disturbances are observed in them. Some fish have organs that are sensitive to very weak electrical vibrations. An inhabitant of our lakes, the swimming beetle senses water waves 4 x 10-6 mm high with its two small processes located behind on the abdomen. And the little grasshopper is sensitive to even the slightest movements of the soil transmitted by the plants on which it sits.

The grasshopper is capable, as research has shown, of responding to vibrations whose amplitude is equal to half the diameter of a hydrogen atom! This means that if, say, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5-6 occurs somewhere on a Pacific island, then the ground vibrations caused by this earthquake in Moscow will be recorded by a grasshopper. The grasshopper, or rather its brain, perceives from the entire colossal stream of sounds only those that have biological significance for it.

What is changing in the environment? Why do animals still sense the approach of a catastrophe? Geophysicists believe that radon gas is released. Its concentration before an earthquake seems to increase tenfold, as it rushes from great depths to the surface layers. It is possible that animals are able to detect increased concentrations of radon in the atmosphere and water. Let us remember dogs and fish with the unusual sensitivity of their “gas analyzers”; they are the first to announce a possible misfortune.

Physicists think that something else is more important: living beings detect fluctuations in the electromagnetic field caused by the tension in the earth's crust before an earthquake. It is possible that underground, above-ground and floating “inhabitants” sense a change in electrical conductivity in rocks and in the upper layers of the soil. Stray currents appear before an earthquake. Perhaps their increase is perceived by animals, especially fish, which have electrical sensitivity.

It is not only the electromagnetic field and changes in the electrical conductivity of rocks that alert living beings to an approaching earthquake, biologists say. Living organisms are capable of determining mechanical stress in a particular material at a distance. Perhaps the effect on the interatomic and intermolecular cohesive forces in the material creates a special field around the stressed structure - let's call it the stress field. But how else can we explain the effect of termites, which can eat an entire wooden house, but eat it in such a way that the structure of the house is not damaged.

In this respect, termites are not inferior to ants; they, too, when constructing their “houses”, clearly determine the tension in the building material. One can imagine how enormous the tension in the earth's crust before an earthquake seems to them if they feel the tension in individual wood fibers. This is most likely why both termites and ants leave their homes before an earthquake.

Anomalous behavior of cats was recorded by some residents of Ashgabat before the earthquake of October 5, 1948. Almost all the animals left the city in advance, as if anticipating the impending disaster. Snakes also left their habitats. And even migratory birds did not make their usual stopover on the lake near the city for several days.

Numerous experiments show that animals really react to upcoming earthquakes for a long time. For example, in Chile, before the earthquake in 1835, every single dog left the city of Talcuano.

A few hours before the catastrophic earthquake in Skopje (Yugoslavia), the animals of the city zoo showed terrible anxiety, but people did not understand them.

Shortly before the earthquake on May 5, 1976, in the Italian province of Friuli, cats began to carry kittens out of their houses with feverish haste, and dogs spun around on a chain and howled incessantly.

12 hours before the earthquake in Morocco at the end of February 1980, dogs and cats began to run out of houses into the streets, and even camels, absolutely indifferent to everything in the world, hastened to leave populated areas.

But in China in February 1975, thanks to the behavior of living seismographs, tens of thousands of people were saved. A few months earlier, a large-scale experiment was carried out in Liaoning province, which has always experienced increased seismic activity: 100,000 volunteers were called upon to convince the population of the province to immediately report any unusual animal behavior to the authorities. An evacuation plan was also developed and a headquarters was created. At a certain point, the headquarters began to receive reports from the field that snakes were waking up from hibernation, crawling out into the snow and freezing, all the cats disappeared from the houses, horses were breaking stalls in the stables, and cows were butting and did not allow themselves to be milked. Guided by these messages, the headquarters staff decided to urgently evacuate the earthquake-prone area and were not mistaken. On February 4, 1975 at 7:30 p.m., a terrible earthquake occurred in Liaoning and destroyed 90% of the houses. In this case, only a few people died who did not have time to leave for a safe place.

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