Mysterious lights were spotted in the sky before Morocco’s devastating earthquake hit last week – and scientists don’t know what caused them
- Images have emerged of strange blue lights after the tragic earthquake in Morocco
- Experts say the glow could be a rare phenomenon called “earthquake lights.”
Strange videos have emerged in the aftermath of Morocco’s devastating earthquake, showing mysterious lights in the sky before the quake struck.
Blue lights were seen over Agadir at the foot of the Atlas Mountains hours before the magnitude 6.8 quake struck.
Although the clips have not been verified, the unexplained sightings have baffled onlookers, with some suggesting a UFO or lightning could be to blame.
Another possible explanation could be ‘earthquake lights’ – a rare phenomenon believed to occur during times of seismic stress.
But no one knows for sure whether earthquake lights even exist, or what causes them.
Images have emerged of strange blue lights after the devastating earthquake in Morocco
“The earthquake in Morocco happened at night,” said geophysicist Dr. Friedemann Freund The Washington Post.
“The requirement for earthquake lights to be seen by people and perhaps even captured by cameras would be relatively high.”
Long believed to be a myth, these unusual lights are thought to occur amid the changes that occur in the Earth’s magnetic field during an earthquake or volcanic eruption.
The lights can take different shapes, whether it is a pink ball of light or four-inch ‘flames’ above the sidewalk.
The latter is said to have taken place in the historic city of L’Aquila in Italy, just seconds before an earthquake struck in 2009.
Meanwhile, a bright purple orb reportedly moved across the sky near the St. Lawrence River in Quebec in 1988, eleven days before a powerful earthquake.
In 2014, Dr. Friedemann and his colleagues studied 65 unexplained reports of these lights date back to 1600.
Geologists say the magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest to hit the heart of the country in more than 120 years.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors, with some forced to dig with their bare hands in remote areas as heavy lifting machines cannot reach them
They found that 85 percent occurred near fractures in the Earth’s crust, commonly called “cracks.”
Most observations also occurred before or during an earthquake, but rarely afterward.
This pattern has led scientists to believe that a buildup of seismic stress is the main cause of earthquake flares.
They theorize that “activated” electrical charges in rocks on the crust ionize air molecules as they rise to the surface.
It is believed that this reaction generates the strange lights, almost like a battery, but much still remains a mystery.
“It’s one of the few documented accounts of someone acting on the presence of earthquake lights,” said Robert Thériault of Québec’s Ministère des Ressources Naturelles, who worked on the study.
“Earthquake lights as a pre-earthquake phenomenon, in combination with other types of parameters that vary prior to seismic activity, may one day help predict the approach of a major earthquake.”
READ MORE: Where did the earthquake in Morocco occur? Map reveals that the epicenter was in the High Atlas Mountains
This map shows the epicenter of Morocco’s deadly earthquake, which killed more than 2,500 people and injured thousands more last Friday.
Geologists said the magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest to hit the heart of the country in more than 120 years and the deadliest in six decades.
Where the earthquake struck: This map shows the epicenter of the deadly earthquake in Morocco, which killed more than 2,500 people and injured thousands of others when it struck last Friday