[imagesource: Twitter/orlaherrera]
Some days after Hurricane Ida raged through the US, bringing with it tornadoes and floods, a magnitude 7,1 earthquake rocked Mexico’s Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
Tuesday’s quake brought with it a wild series of mysterious lights that were set off into the night sky as the city shook.
Shortly after the earthquake, the hashtag #Apocalipsis (‘Apocalypse’ in Spanish) started to trend with videos of bright lights flashing over the shaking city.
Many labelled the mysterious light phenomena as “Earthquake Lights” or UFOs on social media, which Forbes reckons isn’t exactly the truth.
Earthquake Lights (or EQLs) are sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and a steady glow of light, even described sometimes as “flames coming from the ground,” which often come before, during, or after a big earthquake.
The phenomenon isn’t that uncommon, but it is rare enough that scientists haven’t reached a consensus on what causes earthquake lights.
The evidence seems to exist mainly in anecdotal tales, which makes it hard for scientists to study properly.
Anyone coming up with strange theories about what is causing the flashing lights can be excused for the confusion.
Footage shows terrifying scenes:
Así la panorámica de Ciudad de México en el momento exacto del sismo de esta noche ! 🚨
Una imagen muy parecida casualmente al sismo del mismo 7 de septiembre por la noche pero del 2017
Un abrazo a todos ! pic.twitter.com/eEZwgCu3Ex
— Octavio Valdez (@_octaviovaldez) September 8, 2021
Así../ pic.twitter.com/JxaNJhyTy3
— Javier Alarcón (@Javier_Alarcon_) September 8, 2021
Así se ven los # terremotos en el cielo desde un piso 11 ⚡
Lo que escuchas es que el edificio choca contra el que está al lado 🤯
#earthquakeinthesky #Mexico #surreal #terremoto #Sismo #SismoCDMX pic.twitter.com/xR4fue6gm9
— Marco Aguilar (@_030994) September 8, 2021
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) website has more via The Hill:
“Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL: some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL, whereas others think that at least some reports plausibly correspond to EQL,” says the USGS website.
“Physics-based hypotheses have been proposed to explain specific classes of EQL reports, such as those in the immediate vicinity of the causative fault at the time of a major earthquake. On the other hand, some reports of EQL have turned out to be associated with electricity arcing from the power lines shaking.”
Forbes, too, concludes that there is no verified physical evidence of EQLs in existence today.
Their explanation, instead, is much simpler:
The bursts of light on the ground are electric shorts and exploding infrastructure in the city’s streets, and the strange glowing sky is caused by reflections on the clouds.
One person has been reported dead as a result of the earthquake so far.
