strange colored lights

=

clouds
and streetlights

That's interesting.

Wow, that is really interesting. A sight worth recording with or without the subsequent earthquake.

Anyone know what's causing this? Reflection of light?

Some kind of ultra-low frequency just before the quake altering...something or other.

OH NOES)!@!@#*&!@*#&*!@*!@#!!!!!@(@@#131231

Teh streetlights, they comes to get us.

Ruca: Anyone know what's causing this? Reflection of light?

It was a weather balloon filled with swamp gas reflecting the light from Venus.

Do the Chinese have supersonic weather balloons like we do?

I can't tell all that well from the video, but by the wispy nature of the clouds, I think those are really high altitude clouds. The link to other clouds makes them really look like high-altitude clouds. I'm not altogether sure about the something being released bit, but the clouds that high are often ice and pollutants. The rainbow indicates simple solar light reflection off on water/ice. It could be nothing more than just solar reflection.

My guess: Ice crystals in the clouds reflecting the suns light.
... that or an effect of Cheney preparing to fire the earthquake machine.

very interesting......

I took lots of pictures similar to this in Peru just before the big quake there last summer.

real shaman: I took lots of pictures similar to this in Peru just before the big quake there last summer.

So this has happened before other earthquakes? Odd. I have no idea then.

GAT_00: So this has happened before other earthquakes?

It actually happens often before very large earthquakes. It has something to do with a combination of very low frequency vibrations that occur before the quake, which is why you see animals freaking out beforehand, and electromagnetic waves originating from metal deposits in the crust that get deformed during the quake. Water molecules are polarized and the magnetism could align them which might cause refraction like a prism, which is why the clouds are rainbow-colored.

Nestea Plunge: Yes it has. Animals also behave oddly before quakes.

I know about the animals, they are the best warning system that I know of for quakes. They also know about tsunamis, which is why very few animals died in the 2004 tsunami. I had never heard about the high-altitude clouds showing rainbows.

Uakronkid: Water molecules are polarized and the magnetism could align them which might cause refraction like a prism, which is why the clouds are rainbow-colored.

Yeah, that would do it. You learn something every day. Very interesting. I'll have to look this up more later.

Beautiful! A GIS for "rainbow cloud" reveals some even crazier patterns. It's obviously sunlight reflecting through the clouds in a unique way. A rare, but not unprecedented phenomenon.

With a billion people in China, imagine the possibilities of what could have been filmed within 30 minutes of the quake. There's probably a video out there somewhere of a panda farting at the moment the ground started to shake.

WOO WOO!

Uakronkid: Water molecules are polarized

Wow. That sounds plausible.

Got any links? I can't find anything referencing a previous quake, so I remain skeptical.

If true, it would seem that we could measure this sort of thing and predict quakes.

Real cause of the earthquake:

GAT_00: I know about the animals, they are the best warning system that I know of for quakes. They also know about tsunamis, which is why very few animals died in the 2004 tsunami.

My understanding of this phenomena is that they are simply responding to the quake itself. The animals can feel or hear a quake happen far away, and their instinct is to run uphill. This gets them out of the way of a tsunami, thus making it seem as though they knew it was coming. I don't believe it's been confirmed that they ever know about a quake prior to seismic activity occurring.

Teh Gheys caused the quake!

Nestea Plunge: Do you have any info to back up your understanding?

Here's a pretty good article that sort of supports both views...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.ht ml

Guess the jury's still out on this one.

Sundog, anyone?

IRuca: Wow, that is really interesting. A sight worth recording with or without the subsequent earthquake.

Anyone know what's causing this? Reflection of light?

Not reflection, but rather refraction of light onto the water molecules in the cumulus clouds. If there were enough clouds it would form a ring around the sun, similar to ring around the moon during the night.

Maybe a Buendia had just died.

I'm a little rusty on my Chinease, but I succinctly heard "Oh, fruck!"

Nacreous clouds.

/Not related to earthquakes.

ZOMG! When the camera pans out those clouds spell "Skittles"!

Earthquake lights. (new window)

OOOooooooohh, the preddy corors...

Judging by the height above the horizon, I think these might just be cirrus clouds refracting sunlight. If the angle is right, they can cause all manner of interesting effects like this, including parhelia and haloes.

The shapes were a bit odd, though. Maybe remnants of a contrail, or even skywriting.

Anyone know whether the video is what it says it is, or just some footage shot by a random Chinese person at some time in the past. Could be skywriting laid on for someone's birthday party.

spooky!

Ionic refraction.

Note to self: Pretty rainbow clouds = Harbingers of death and devastation.

Good to know.

I heard that there were spooky lights caused by tectonic shifts before earthquakes, called "earth lights" or something similar, I didn't think they'd be disarmingly pretty though.

China beat Japan to achieving the "Akira effect" and has hidden the sliced remains of their most successful test subject beneath their Olympic stadium?

/KANEDAAAAA!!!

Those are circumhorizontal arcs, NOT caused from the earthquake. Earthquake lights are much different, they look like exploding transformers or lightning at night.

Videos of earthquake lights can be found here (new window), and here (new window).

Also here is a picture from Japan in a 6 earthquake

Iridescent clouds (pops)

I'm pretty sure the "earthquake" spell never worked on them.

My new sunglasses tend to give a lot of different clouds that "rainbow" effect.

I'm guessing that in this footage is a product of refraction, (duh) but I certainly don't know by what process it might precede an earthquake.

swamp gas

The older I get, the dumber everybody around me gets.

3 G's That's probably because they have polarized lenses. Next time it happens, take them off and rotate them in from of your eyes. The colours will change.

/and if it doesn't work, it's still a good way of breaking the ice with people around you.

Uakronkid: GAT_00: So this has happened before other earthquakes?

It actually happens often before very large earthquakes. It has something to do with a combination of very low frequency vibrations that occur before the quake, which is why you see animals freaking out beforehand, and electromagnetic waves originating from metal deposits in the crust that get deformed during the quake. Water molecules are polarized and the magnetism could align them which might cause refraction like a prism, which is why the clouds are rainbow-colored.

Nice theory, but I blame the gub'ment.

/cool info, gotta look more into this

Since we're on this fascinating subject, maybe someone knows:

I'm a skydiver, and when I happen to be flying over a cloud with the sun directly behind me, I always have a perfect round rainbow halo around my shadow (projected on the cloud).
I know other guys that have done some "Rainbow chasing" but can't explain either.

it was GLORIOUS HISTORY OF CHINA AND GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.

copycat, You've just seen a Brocken Spectre

tfm_copycat: Since we're on this fascinating subject, maybe someone knows:

I'm a skydiver, and when I happen to be flying over a cloud with the sun directly behind me, I always have a perfect round rainbow halo around my shadow (projected on the cloud).
I know other guys that have done some "Rainbow chasing" but can't explain either.

It's either Satan, or tiny water droplets refracting. Take your pick.

The music you like sucks.

Tillmaster: copycat, You've just seen a Brocken Spectre

Wow, great info! Thanks!

Nirwana: I'll take Satan, since there have been consistent bad weather weekends for the last 5 weeks

Al Gorithm: Iridescent clouds (pops)

I love that site...

You have seen how oil rainbows on water puddles rafracting in the sunlight? That's just all the hydrocarbons and pollution and shiat in the air there refracting in the sunlight.

No no. I'm able to read and speak Chinese cloud. Those definitely say Beef and Broccoli

Reports of strange lights during earthquakes or other kinds of seismic disruptions are common enough that it has become an accepted explanation for the lights being mistaken for UFOs of the alien kind if seen within a certain area.

I read about this theory in the 80s and there appears to be at least a scientific connection worth checking out.