HAARP and earthquakes

I have heard much speculation that HAARP caused the earthquake in China in May, 2008. Does the real science back this speculation?

This is the website for HAARP

http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/

This speculation seems to be unjustified.

Note:

There was a Chinese video of the sky before the May 2008 earthquake.  I addressed this phenomenon on this post:

Signs in the sky – natural or unnatural? – end times

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Reasons:

(1) Earthquakes have happened before HAARP even existed.

Earthquakes have happened before in China, in 1927 (7.9), in 1932,(7.6), and 1976 (7.5), all before HAARP was established in 1990. So, just because another earthquake happened in China, does not mean it is correlated with HAARP. See history map below.

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(2) The earth is shifting in plates. The earth may be affected by electromagnetic activity of the sun, or other artificial devices, but it has its own electromagnetic and mechanical activity as well.

The Schumann resonances (SR) are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth’s electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed by the Earth surface and the ionosphere. Schumann resonance occurs because the space between the surface of the Earth and the conductive ionosphere acts as a waveguide.

Since the early days of radio, in the age of Nikolai Tesla, it has been known the earth has a natural electromagnetic resonance of its own. If you take your receiver and tune below the Schumann Resonance down to about 0.9 or 1 Hz you will hear static from yet another resonant source. This is the Alfven Resonance. there are primarily three schools of thought about the source of the Alfven Resonance. These are: (1) magnetospheric, (2) ionospheric and (3) lithospheric interactions with radio waves. The Alfven Resonance may not be due to radio waves in the air, but is actually coming from the earth due to random seismic activity around the planet.

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The magnetosphere is there to protect the earth from the solar winds.

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The lithosphere (geosphere) is the “solid” part of Earth. It has two parts, the crust and the upper mantle. The crust is Earth’s outermost layer. The crust varies from 5 to 70 kilometers in thickness. The crust includes rocks, minerals, and soil. There are two kinds of crust: continental and oceanic. Yes, there is even crust under the ocean!

The crust is constantly moving, which is why continents move and earthquakes happen. The science that studies how the parts of the crust move is called “Plate Tectonics.”

Earth’s oceanic crust is a thin layer of dense rock about 5 kilometers thick. The continental crust is less dense, with lighter-colored rock, that varies from 30 to 70 kilometers thick. The continental crust is older and thicker than the oceanic crust.

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The ionosphere is the uppermost part of the atmosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on the Earth. It is located in the Thermosphere.

The lowest part of the Earth’s atmosphere is called the troposphere and it extends from the surface up to about 10 km (6 miles). The atmosphere above 10 km is called the stratosphere, followed by the mesosphere. It is in the stratosphere that incoming solar radiation creates the ozone layer. At heights of above 80 km (50 miles), in the thermosphere, the atmosphere is so thin that free electrons can exist for short periods of time before they are captured by a nearby positive ion. The number of these free electrons is sufficient to affect radio propagation. This portion of the atmosphere is ionized and contains a plasma which is referred to as the ionosphere.

The ionization depends primarily on the Sun and its activity. Thus there is a diurnal (time of day) effect and a seasonal effect. The local winter hemisphere is tipped away from the Sun, thus there is less received solar radiation. The activity of the sun is associated with the sunspot cycle, with more radiation occurring with more sunspots. Radiation received also varies with geographical location (polar, auroral zones, mid-latitudes, and equatorial regions). There are also mechanisms that disturb the ionosphere and decrease the ionization. There are disturbances such as solar flares and the associated release of charged particles into the solar wind which reaches the Earth and interacts with its geomagnetic field.

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(3) It has historically been more evident that earthquakes affected the ionosphere (area of HAARP activity) rather than the ionosphere affecting the earthquakes.

References:

(a) Ultra-low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the Earth’s crust and magnetosphere

A V Guglielmi 2007 Phys.-Usp. 50 1197-1216

Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract. Research on natural intra- and extra terrestrially produced electromagnetic waves with periods ranging from 0.2 to 600 s is reviewed. The way in which the energy of rock movements transforms into the energy of an alternating magnetic field is analyzed. Methods for detecting seismomagnetic signals against a strong background are described. In discussing the physics of ultra-low-frequency waves in the magnetosphere, the 11-year activity modulation of 1-Hz waves and ponderomotive forces affecting plasma distribution are emphasized.

(b) The quaking ionosphere – earthquake disturbs ionosphere

Science News, Oct 19, 1985

On April 12, 1978, something strange happened to the ionosphere above Chatanika, Alaska. Scientists routinely monitoring the flow of ionospheric particles detected very large verticle oscillations corresponding at times to ion velocities of up to 100 meters per second. Normally, ionospheric winds travel almost exclusively in the horizontal direction. And any verticle motions –rarely larger than 2 m/sec — are usually associated with changes in the magnetic field, but no such variations were recorded that day.

The mystery was solved when Michael Kelley at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Robert Livingston and Mary McCready at SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif., linked the nine-hour-long ionospheric disturbance to an earthquake that had occurred 1,000 kilometers from the radar site just before the oscillations began. As discussed in the September GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, the researchers found that their data compared well with a theory developed 18 years ago, which predicts that a nuclear explosion or earthquake will excite atmospheric motion near the event much like that created when a pebble falls in water.

In order to fit the data to the model, however, they had to assume that the ionosphere was hotter than normal, suggesting that the earthquake had heated the upper atmosphere. According to Kelley, energy from earthquakes, tornadoes and weather in the lower atmosphere may play a much more important role in warming the upper atmosphere than has usually been assumed.

(c). GPS detection of total electron content variations over Indonesia and Thailand following the 26 December 2004 earthquake

We report the response of the ionosphere to the large earthquake that occurred in West Sumatra, Indonesia, at 0058 UT on December 26, 2004. We have analyzed Global Positioning System (GPS) data obtained at two sites in Sumatra and at three sites in Thailand to investigate total electron content (TEC) variations. Between 14 and 40 min after the earthquake, TEC enhancements of 1.6-6.9 TEC units (TECU) were observed at subionospheric points located 360-2000 km north of the epicenter. From the time delays of the observed TEC enhancements, we find that the TEC enhancements propagated northward from the epicenter. The time delays between the earthquake and rapid increases in TEC, which occurred near the epicenter, are consistent with the idea that acoustic waves generated by the earthquake propagated into the ionosphere at the speed of sound to cause the TEC variations. A small TEC enhancement of 0.6 TECU was observed south of the epicenter, while no TEC enhancements were seen east of the epicenter. From a model calculation, we find that this directivity of the TEC variations with respect to the azimuth from the epicenter could be caused partially by the directivity in the response of the electron density variation to the acoustic waves in the neutral atmosphere.

(d) Ionospheric post-seismic perturbations following the Tokachi-Oki earthquake from high rate GPS Japanese data : wave source and propagation Ionospheric perturbations

Crespon, F. (1,2) ; Occhipinti, G. (1); Garcia, R. (1);Lognonné, P. (1) and Murakami, M. (3)(1) Institutde Physique duGlobe de Paris, Départementde Géophysique Spatialeet Planétaire, 4 avenue de Neptune, 94107, St Maurdes Fossés, France (2) Noveltis, Parc Technologique duCanal, 2 rue de l’Europe, 31520, Ramonville, France(3) Geographical Survey Institute, Geography and CrustalDynamics Research Center, Kitasato-1, Tsukuba, 305-0811

Ionospheric perturbations following the Tokachi-Oki earthquake (East of Hokkaido island) have been sensed by the high rate continuous GPS Network of Japan. The strong motions have produced infrasonic waves propagating into the ionosphere and generating electronic density perturbations. The electronic content along GPS satellite to GPS receiver rays is extracted from the raw data. The attenuation of infrasonic waves by the atmosphere is demonstrated on these signals. Then, the GPS data have been inverted to reconstruct 3D tomographic images of the electronic density perturbations. The ionospheric waves far from the source are propagating horizontally at the speed of seismic surface waves and vertically at the speed of sound in the atmosphere. Close to the source, the signal has been analyzed and modeled in order to constraint the source location and the source mechanism. These studies demonstrate the interest of post-seismic ionospheric perturbations to retrieve the long period strong motions that are notable inland due to the saturation of seismometers, and in the ocean due to the low number of ocean bottom seismometers.

Conclusion:

I doubt that HAARP activity caused the China earthquake. It is more likely that the pre- and post- earthquake conditions affected the atmosphere, rather than the atmosphere affected the earthquake.