Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

"Six days before the massive magnitude-9 earthquake that triggered the devastating March 11, 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japan, 50 melon-headed whales beached themselves in the area. This week, over 150 melon-headed whales beached themselves on two beaches in the same vicinity. Is this another warning from the whales? Will anyone listen this time?

On April 9, 2015, almost 160 melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), members of the oceanic dolphin family related to pilot whales and pygmy killer whales, were found beached on a 4 km (2.5 mile) section of beach in Hokotashi City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The Ibaraki coast guard reported the whales were near death. They saved a few but were forced to euthanize those not already dead. Tadasu Yamada, a senior researcher at National Museum of Nature and Science, gave this comment.

"We don’t see any immediate signs of diseases on their bodies, such as cancer. We want to figure out what killed these animals."

Ibaraki Prefecture is also where the 50 melon-headed whales were found beached in 2011, six days before the earthquake and only 100 kilometers (62 miles) from its epicenter.

Before you say coincidence, in February 2011, over 100 pilot whales (close relatives of melon-headed whales) beached themselves on New Zealand’s Stewart Island less than 48 hours before an earthquake hit there. In the months right before the 2004 Indian Ocean (aka Boxing Day) earthquake and tsunami that killed over 230,000 people, over 170 whales beached themselves in New Zealand and Australia.

Indian professor Dr. Arunachalam Kumar believes there is a connection between the beaching of marine mammals and earthquakes.

"It is my observation, confirmed over the years, that mass suicides of whales and dolphins that occur sporadically all over the world, are in some way related to change and disturbances in the electromagnetic field co-ordinates and possible realignments of geotectonic plates thereof."

“Beaching” makes these incidents sound like accidents. “Mass suicide” is a warning. Is anyone listening to the whales this time?"===http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/04/16...e-warning/

There was a recent piece in regards to how large marine mammals are drawn to low frequency sounds.

Consider for instance how Dolphins (and possibly whales) "school" with ships. Ships of course cut through the surface of water as they move. The movement itself causes low frequency sounds to permeate the water since sound travels extremely well through water. (Consider that sound requires molecules to move, water is actually more effective than air and translating it)

I did actually consider how even fish moving through water emanates sound, especially when they turn. So when some predator comes across fish, they aren't just chasing what they might be able to see or smell, but what they can hear. In fact it could suggest that if a predator was to track something for long enough it would know just how capable of making turns a fish is through studying it, increasing the chances of actually catching it.

As for why all the beaching's?
The human race makes a lot of noise. Combined sounds of cars moving across a bridge can potentially create underwater sound pollution not just from the noise the cars make as they whiz past but also from the bridge itself reverberating from the constant stream of re-applied mass. Any inquisitively inclined mammal will likely want to investigate the noise... . o O (is it another herd of whales? perhaps a school of fish to eat?)

As for Earthquakes, obviously there are tremors that can occur, or even the sound of molten magma shift beneath a thin crust at the oceans bottom. I would suggest however that rather than drawing animals too the epicentre, it would likely make them flee, similar to how birds flock away from a gunshot.

It's known that animals are effected by low frequency sounds around Cape Canaveral, Florida. Every time a launch was done the nearby wildlife would become distraught. (Not good in 'Gator territory.)

Whales are very intelligent.
They are often found in schools.

Whoop there it is!
TOKYO —"An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5 struck near the Ogasawara islands at 8:24 p.m. Saturday. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there was no danger of a tsunami.

The quake struck at a depth of 590 kilometers near the Ogasawaras which are 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo.

The strong quake shook buildings in Tokyo for about a minute. Both runways at Narita Airport were temporarily closed while inspections were carried out. Trains in Tokyo were also temporarily halted and shinkansen train services between Tokyo and Osaka were halted due to a power outage, NHK said. A soccer match in Tokyo was also briefly suspended.

The quake had an intensity of 5 in the Ogasawaras, a 4 in Tokyo’s 23 wards as well as Ibaraki, Saitama, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures. It measured 3 in the Tohoku region and 2 in parts of Hokkaido."====http://www.japantoday.com/category/natio...ra-islands