It is known that many animals anticipate natural disasters long before the appropriate instruments can detect them. This is explained by the fact that some particularly sensitive people, as well as almost all animals, are capable of perceiving gravitational and electromagnetic disturbances, changes in electric field strength that precede the onset of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, etc.

These disturbances cause anxiety, sleep disturbances, increased nervousness, and a general deterioration in well-being in particularly sensitive people. Unlike people, animals, sensing all such negative factors, act intuitively and leave dangerous areas. People are accustomed to trusting not intuition, but the conjectures of reason, and therefore often refuse intuitively correct decisions. For example, before the earthquake in Neftegorsk, many residents of this city could not sleep and experienced anxiety.

Something similar was discovered by specialists from the Hungarian Institute of Seismology in the Hungarian Carpathians - Matra in elderly people, most of whom were women. About five to six hours before the earthquake, these people experienced weakness, severe headaches and dizziness, increased heart rate, severe tinnitus, a burnt taste in the mouth, and an inexplicable feeling of anxiety.

Knowing such symptoms, you can leave densely built areas in advance, turn off gas and fuel lines, which will reduce the number of victims and the likelihood of technological accidents and fires as a result of earthquakes and other natural disasters. Sometimes tremors are accompanied by a clearly audible low hum when the frequency of seismic vibrations lies in the range perceived by the human ear. Sometimes such sounds are heard even in the absence of shocks.

Therefore, if similar symptoms are detected in people, it is also necessary to monitor the behavior of animals. Thus, it was noticed that an hour before the earthquake in Belgrade in 1973, cats, dogs and birds showed great anxiety. In the city of Saint-Pierre on the island of Martinique, destroyed by the Mont Pelee volcano in 1902, 30 thousand people and only one cat died. All other domestic animals, as well as animals and birds, left the danger zone in advance.

Also, a few days before the tragedy, mass migrations of birds and snakes from dangerous areas were observed. During calm periods, deep waves appeared in the sea, and the water suddenly became warmer. In 1948, two days before the Ashgabat earthquake, old Turkmens warned the party leadership about the impending danger based on observations of animal behavior (snakes and lizards left their holes)

It is known that animals and birds anticipate the danger of natural disasters in the period from several weeks to several days and hours before their onset. The human body is also capable of detecting these danger signals.

If you are interested in this topic, then more detailed information about the harbingers of natural disasters can be read on the website

During the tsunami that devastated the coasts of nine Asian countries in December 2004, very few animals were harmed amid the colossal human toll (300 thousand people died). How can we explain this? There are a great many hypotheses. The interest of both the public and scientists is enormous. And this despite the fact that the proactive reaction of living beings to an impending natural disaster has been noticed by people for a very long time.

The first documented example is of considerable age - it dates back to two thousand BC. It says that on the island of Crete, before a strong earthquake, weasels left human settlements.

In China, the appearance of snake balls on the surface of the earth has long been an omen of disaster. Chinese seers were guided by this sign when they predicted a strong earthquake in November 1920. Despite the fact that many knew about the tragedy in advance, the number of human casualties was still significant. The strength of the tremors was 8.6 on the Richter scale.

After the first earthquake, the fragile homes of the Chinese were swept away from the face of the earth. In one minute, 10 ancient cities disappeared. More than 180,000 people died that day. Another 20,000 people died later from the cold, as all the houses were destroyed and people had nowhere to hide from the frost. The situation caused by a strong earthquake was complicated by the subsequent landslide.

History repeated itself in 1975, when the strongest Hainan earthquake with an amplitude of 7.3 occurred in China. On the eve of the disaster, snakes again crawled out of their holes on the surface of the soil, which looked very strange in winter conditions, because it was winter outside, that is, the time when reptiles are supposed to be in deep hibernation. This phenomenon was accompanied by a number of minor underground vibrations. During January 1975, reports of strange animal behavior increased. Now even the cattle refused to go into the stalls. And then an unprecedented decision was made to evacuate the city of Hainan, which in February of the same year was completely wiped off the face of the earth by a catastrophic magnitude 8 earthquake.

In the history of seismology, this is practically the only earthquake that was predicted in advance and saved the lives of 400 thousand citizens. The uniqueness of this forecast is that it was made on the basis of observations of bioprecursors.

Japanese scientists observing the behavior of crocodiles in a nursery on the island of Honshu noted that before a strong earthquake in the middle part of the island, which occurred on December 17, 1987, the crocodiles unexpectedly staged a real “concert.” Dozens of individuals growled alarmingly and, bending in an arc, performed an intricate dance.

It is quite difficult to study the behavior of animals before an earthquake in order to understand the reasons for the described behavior: large earthquakes are quite rare, and seismologists predict them with varying success. However, in one case, luck still smiled on the researchers. We are talking about the earthquake in L'Aquila (Italy), which occurred in 2009. Shortly before this, every single one of the local toads left the reservoirs. This led scientists to the idea that before an earthquake, the composition of groundwater and soil water changes, which can be primarily felt by those who live in holes and in water.

Scientists explain this phenomenon this way. An earthquake has a certain period of preparation, during which layers of the earth’s rock may experience deformation, collapse due to increasing pressure, etc. This is not yet a full-fledged earthquake, but the destruction and deformation of rocks lead to the release of certain chemically active substances. Once released, they react with the air and cause the appearance of positively charged ions in it. These ions themselves can affect the state of living organisms.

If scientists have figured out the behavior of reptiles, then the situation with premonitions of disaster in other animals is more complicated. After the Spitak earthquake in Armenia, which occurred in 1988, the story of the husky Alice and her owner Gharibyan from Leninakan became widely known. On the morning of December 7, two hours before the earthquake, the owner took the dog out for a walk, but Alice refused to go back into the house and howled and barked terribly. The frightened owner called the police, the city council, the radio, and everywhere they laughed at him. Just in case, Gharibyan decided to take his family out of the house and suggested that his neighbors do the same. And not in vain, since it was at this time that the elements struck the city.

In general, the history of the 20th century shows that animals are able to foresee not only earthquakes and tsunamis. There are cases when animals left the valleys, anticipating an avalanche, and during the Second World War, when death could fall from the sky at any minute, cats often saved their owners. A black and white cat named Sally, who lived near the London docks, developed a sophisticated warning system that used to alert her owner and neighbors to a bomb shelter before the bombs began to fall. Feeling that the attack was close, Sally ran to the counter in the hall where the gas mask hung, and began to persistently pound it with her front paws, after which she returned to her owner and began to scratch her. Then she rushed into the yard and began to scratch at the door of the bomb shelter. One day, when the owner entered the shelter, Sally jumped over the fence, ran into the neighbors' yard and began meowing loudly, attracting their attention. Only when everyone was in the bomb shelter did Sally relax, curl up in a ball and fall asleep peacefully.

Here are a few more examples of the amazing “geo-sensitivity” of our little brothers.

After the events of December 2004, a lighthouse keeper in South India told how, a few hours before the tsunami, an entire herd of antelope fled in panic from the coast to the nearby hills. Anticipating a tsunami, in Thailand elephants screamed, broke their chains and ran away to higher ground, flamingos left the lowlands in which they traditionally live and feed, and flew to higher ground. A few hours before the tsunami in a Malaysian zoo, all the animals behaved very strangely, most of them hid in their homes and refused to come out. In Sri Lanka, more than 30 thousand people died during the tsunami, while almost all the elephants, deer and other wild animals survived. Of the 2,000 inhabitants of one of the Indian reserves, only one wild boar died during the tsunami in December 2004.

American biologists testify that 12 hours before Hurricane Charlie arrived in Florida, 14 sharks, which had been monitored for several years, left their habitat, which they had never left in their lives, into deeper waters and returned only through two weeks when the danger had passed. A similar reaction from sharks was observed before Storm Gabriel.

What do animals know that we don’t? The 2004 tsunami forced us to think about this issue more seriously. Research has shown that a variety of animal species around the world have the ability to sense natural disasters.

“Wild animals are able to perceive much more information about the environment than humans. They hear perfectly, detect dangerous vibrations at a great distance and feel the most insignificant changes in atmospheric pressure. The main ability of animals is the ability to “read” natural warnings, which helps them go to safe places in time, emphasizes biologist Dr. Mike Heithaus. “It’s impossible to learn, but knowledge about the habits of animals and the ability to correctly interpret their behavior could bring a lot of benefits to people.”

Is it possible for us, ordinary city dwellers, to predict a possible approaching earthquake at home? It turns out it is possible. For example, ordinary aquarium fish - macrognathus - line up in a vertical chain three to four hours before an earthquake. They can also rush around the aquarium and even try to jump out of it. Another aquarium fish, the neon fish, begins to behave restlessly the day before the earthquake. In particular, teachers of the Almaty eco-center “Best”, noticing the unusual behavior of macrognathus, 20 minutes before the earthquake in Almaty at 4.5 points (epicenter Kyrgyzstan) took the children outside.

There are cases where many animals save their owners at the household level. For example, a cocker named Jersey grabbed his owner's trousers while he was heading to a friend's place to fly on his private jet. The usually quiet dog whined and growled menacingly. And when the owner was about to leave, he bit him on the leg and disrupted the event, which caused serious anger from the whole family. The next morning it became known that a friend had crashed his plane, crashing into a rock.

And in a nursing home in the American state of Rhode Island there lives a cat who can smell death. David Dosa, a professor at Brown University in the USA, spoke about the rare gift of a cat named Oscar in his book. The cat very rarely makes mistakes and even sometimes predicts the onset of death better than the doctors themselves. Oscar is no different from other cats living in the hospital, except for one unusual property. He rarely spends time with patients, except those who are about to die. If he is not allowed into the room where the dying person is, he begins to scratch the door and ask to be seen.

In a word, scientists have something to think about...

“Interesting newspaper. The world of the unknown" No. 14 2012

Inexplicable but the fact. During the tsunami, which claimed more than 300 thousand lives in 2004, surprisingly few animals were harmed. What is this connected with? How to explain this? There are a huge number of hypotheses. And it makes no sense to deny that animals have much greater sense, because history contains many similar cases.

The first documented example occurred a long time ago - in the year two thousand BC. Then, on the island of Crete, just before the earthquake, the weasels left their settlements.

And in China, snakes have long been an omen of natural disasters. Some time before the disaster, they appear on the surface of the earth. This happened in 1975. On the eve of the strongest earthquake, all the snakes crawled to the surface. It was also strange that this event occurred in January, at a time when all reptiles are in hibernation. All this was accompanied by minor fluctuations. Throughout the month, other animals in this area began to behave, to put it mildly, strangely. Cattle, for example, began to refuse to go to their stalls.

Thanks to this omen, it was decided to evacuate all residents of the city of Hainan. Already in February of the same year, the city was completely wiped off the face of the earth.

In history, this is practically the only earthquake that was predicted in advance and thus saved more than 400 thousand citizens.

Crocodiles also have super sense. Japanese scientists, who had been observing crocodiles in a nursery on Honshu for a long time in 1987, noticed that before the earthquake the crocodiles and their behavior changed greatly. The crocodiles staged a real “concert”. Some growled very loudly, others performed an intricate dance.

But how do reptiles sense the approach of a catastrophe? Scientists have found that an earthquake has a certain period of preparation. At this time, the layers of the earth's rock undergo deformation, this leads to the release of certain substances, which in turn cause the appearance of positively charged ions in the air. And these same ions affect reptiles.

But not only they, frogs and snakes sense the approaching disaster. In 1988, a major earthquake occurred in Armenia. Later it became known that 2 hours before this terrible event, a dog named Alice felt approaching trouble. Her owner Gharibyan took his dog for a walk, but Alisa flatly refused to return home. The owner got scared and called the police and the radio. But they didn’t listen to his words. Then Gharibyan, out of harm’s way, decided to take his family and neighbors to a safe place. And for good reason! On that terrible day, many people died during the earthquake.

But animals are able to anticipate not only earthquakes. Some animals can foresee another impending mortal threat. For example, a cat named Sammy saved her owners more than once during World War II. She felt when the bombs would fall, and did not calm down until all the inhabitants of her house were in a bomb shelter.

And in Taiwan, for example, anticipating a tsunami, flamingos left the lowlands, where they had lived for a long time, and flew to higher ground. The elephants also sensed the approaching storm. They screamed, broke the chains and tried to escape.

American biologists say that 14 sharks 12 hours before Hurricane Charlie in Florida also began to behave differently. They left their usual habitat and returned home only when the danger had completely passed.

There are also cases where animals save their owners from imminent death at the everyday level. A cocker named Jersey, for example, grabbed his owner's leg as he was about to board a private plane. The usually quiet and kind dog growled angrily, whined, ran around, unable to find a place for itself, and then, when the owner finally decided to board the plane, she rushed towards him and bit him on the leg. Instead of flying to a friend, the owner of Jersey went to the hospital. But what was his surprise when the next day he learned on the local news that his friend had crashed on this plane, crashing into a rock.

And in a nursing home located in Rhode Island, there lives an unusual cat named Oscar. They say he can smell death. In appearance, Oscar is an ordinary cat. But there is one thing... Oscar very rarely visits patients. The only exceptions are those people who will die soon...

So what actually is the unknown force that makes animals flee a few hours before the tragedy and sense their approaching death? And how can we, ordinary residents, unravel and understand these omens? Everything is possible. It is enough just to take a closer look and listen to our smaller brothers - perhaps they can save us from many disasters...

Under natural disasters understand natural phenomena that cause an emergency situation characterized by a sudden disruption of the normal functioning of significant groups of the population, a threat to life

people and destruction of material assets.

Natural disasters can occur either independently of each other or in conjunction, one of them can lead to the other. Regardless of the source of a natural disaster, they are characterized by significant scales and varying durations - from several minutes and seconds (earthquakes, avalanches) to several hours (mudflows), days (landfalls) and months (floods).

Natural disasters include:

· geological and geophysical phenomena (earthquakes, landslides, mudflows, subsidence of the earth's surface);

· hydrological and hydrogeological phenomena (floods, floods);

meteorological phenomena:

a) aerodynamic (hurricanes, storms, storms, tornadoes, cyclones, etc.);

b) agrometeorological (hail, rain, frost, drought);

c) natural fires (forest, steppe, peat, etc.);

· space (fall of meteorites, remnants of comets).

Earthquakes- these are strong vibrations of the earth's crust caused by tectonic or volcanic causes and leading to the destruction of buildings, structures, fires and human casualties.

The main characteristics of earthquakes are: depth of source, magnitude and intensity of energy on the earth's surface.

The depth of the earthquake source usually ranges from 10 to 30 km, in some cases it can be much greater.

Magnitude characterizes the total energy of an earthquake. The Richter magnitude varies from 0 to 9 (the strongest earthquake). Increasing it by one means a tenfold increase in the amplitude of vibrations in the soil (or soil displacement) and an increase in earthquake energy by 30 times.

The intensity of energy on the earth's surface is measured in points. It depends on the depth of the source, magnitude, distance from the epicenter, geological structure of the soil and other factors. To measure the intensity of earthquake energy in our country, a 12-point Richter scale has been adopted.

Earthquakes cause great material damage and claim thousands of human lives. They also cause other natural disasters, such as landslides, avalanches, mudflows, tsunamis, floods (due to dam failures), fires (damage to oil storage facilities and rupture of gas pipelines), damage to communications, power, water supply and sewerage lines, accidents at chemical enterprises with leakage (spill) of explosive substances, as well as at nuclear power plants with leakage (release) of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, etc.

Currently, there are no sufficiently reliable methods for predicting earthquakes and their consequences. However, based on changes in the characteristic properties of the earth, as well as the unusual behavior of living organisms before an earthquake (they are called precursors), scientists are often able to make predictions. The harbingers of earthquakes are: a rapid increase in the frequency of weak tremors (vents); deformation of the earth's crust, determined by observation from satellites from space or filming on the earth's surface using laser light sources: a change in the ratio of the propagation velocities of longitudinal and transverse waves on the eve of an earthquake; changes in electrical resistivity of rocks, groundwater levels in wells, radon content in water, etc.

The unusual behavior of animals on the eve of an earthquake is expressed in the fact that, for example, cats leave villages and carry kittens to meadows, and birds in cages within 10-15 minutes. before the earthquake begins to fly; before the shock, unusual cries of birds are heard; domestic animals in barns panic, etc. The most likely reason for this behavior of animals is considered to be anomalies in the electromagnetic field before the earthquake.

To protect against earthquakes, seismically dangerous zones in various regions of the country are identified in advance, i.e. so-called seismic zoning is carried out. Seismic zoning maps usually highlight areas that are threatened by earthquakes with an intensity higher than 7-8 on the Richter scale. In seismically hazardous areas, various protection measures are provided, starting from strict compliance with the requirements of norms and rules during the construction of reconstructions of buildings, structures and other objects to the suspension of hazardous industries (chemical plants, nuclear power plants, etc.).

Landslides– these are sliding displacements of masses of rocks down the slope, arising due to an imbalance caused by various reasons (undermining of rocks by water, weakening of their strength due to weathering or waterlogging by precipitation and groundwater, systematic tremors, unreasonable human economic activity, etc.).

Landslides can occur on slopes with a steepness of 20º or more and at any time of the year. It differs not only in the speed of rock displacement, but also in its scale. The rate of slow rock displacement is several tens of centimeters per year, medium displacement is several meters per hour or day, and rapid displacement is tens of kilometers per hour. Rapid displacements include landslides-flows, when solid material is mixed with water, as well as snow and snow-rock avalanches. The volume of rocks displaced during landslides ranges from several hundred to many millions and even billions of cubic meters.

Landslides can destroy populated areas, destroy agricultural land, create danger during the operation of quarries and mining, damage communications, tunnels, pipelines, telephone and electrical networks, water management structures, mainly dams. In addition, they can block valleys, form dam lakes and contribute to floods. Thus, the economic damage they cause can be very significant. The most effective protection against landslides is their prevention. Among the complex of preventive measures, it should be noted the collection and drainage of surface water, artificial transformation of the relief, fixation of slopes with the help of piles and the construction of retaining walls.

Snow avalanches also often referred to as landslides. They occur in the same way as other landslide displacements. The adhesion forces of snow cross a certain limit and gravity causes the snow masses to shift along the slope. A snow avalanche is a mixture of snow crystals and air. Large avalanches occur on slopes of 25-60º. Smooth grassy slopes are the most prone to avalanches. Shrubs, large rocks and other obstacles inhibit avalanches.

Snow avalanches cause enormous material damage and are often accompanied by loss of life. So, on July 13, 1990, on Lenin Peak in the Pamirs, as a result of an earthquake and a large avalanche from the slope, a climbers’ camp at an altitude of 5300 m was demolished. 40 people died. There has never been such a tragedy in the history of domestic mountaineering.

Avalanche protection can be passive or active. With passive protection, avalanche slopes are avoided or barrier shields are placed on them. With active protection, avalanche-prone slopes are bombarded, causing small, harmless avalanches, and thus preventing the accumulation of critical masses of snow.

Sat down– these are floods with a very high concentration of mineral particles, stones and rock fragments (from 10-15 to 75% of the flow volume), occurring in the basins of small mountain rivers and dry ravines and caused, as a rule, by rainfall, less often by intense snow melting, as well as the breakthrough of moraine and dam lakes, landslides, landslides, and earthquakes.

The danger of mudflows lies not only in their destructive power, but also in the suddenness of their appearance. The consequences of mudflows can be catastrophic.

Methods of dealing with mudflows are very diverse. This is the construction of various dams to delay solid runoff and pass a mixture of water and small rock fractions, cascades of dams to destroy a mudflow and free it from solid material, retaining walls to strengthen slopes, etc.

Floods– these are significant flooding of the area as a result of rising water levels in a river, lake, reservoir, caused by various reasons (spring snowmelt, heavy rainfall and rainfall, ice jams on rivers, breakthrough of dams, dam lakes and enclosing dams, wind surge of water, etc. .P.). Floods cause enormous material damage and lead to casualties.

Direct material damage from floods consists of damage and destruction of residential and industrial buildings, roads and railways, power and communication lines, reclamation systems, loss of livestock and agricultural crops, damage and destruction of raw materials, fuel, food, feed, fertilizers, etc. .P.

Floods may be accompanied by fires due to breaks and short circuits of electrical cables and wires, as well as ruptures of water and sewer pipes, electrical, television and telegraph cables located in the ground due to subsequent uneven settlement of the soil.

The main direction of flood control is to reduce the maximum water flow in the river by redistributing the flow over time (planting forest protection belts, plowing land across slopes, preserving coastal water protection strips of vegetation, terracing slopes, etc.).

A certain effect is also achieved by installing ponds, tanks and other containers in logs, gullies and gullies to intercept melt and rain water. For medium and large rivers, the only radical solution is to regulate flood flow using reservoirs.

In addition, a long-known method, the construction of dams, is widely used to protect against floods. To eliminate the danger of jams, certain sections of the river bed are straightened, cleared and deepened, as well as the ice is destroyed by explosions 10-15 days before its opening.

Hurricanes– these are winds of force 12 on the Beaufort scale, i.e. winds whose speed exceeds 32.6 m/s (117.3 km/h). Hurricanes are also called tropical cyclones , arising in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Central America; in the Far East and in the Indian Ocean, hurricanes (cyclones) are called typhoons , in Japan - a tsunami. During tropical cyclones, wind speeds often exceed 50 m/s. Cyclones and typhoons are usually accompanied by intense rainfall.

A hurricane on land destroys buildings, communication and power lines, damages transport communications and bridges, breaks and uproots trees; when spread over the sea, it causes huge waves 10-12 m or more in height, damaging or even leading to the death of the ship.

Hurricanes and storm winds (their speed on the Beaufort scale from 20.8 to 32.6 m/s) in winter can lift huge masses of snow into the air and cause snow storms, which leads to drifts, stopping the movement of road and rail transport, and disruption of water systems. -, gas, electricity and communications.

Modern weather forecasting methods make it possible to warn the population of cities or entire coastal areas several hours and even days in advance about an approaching hurricane (storm), and civil defense services (CD) and the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) can provide the necessary information about the possible situation and required actions in current conditions.