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Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 1025–1036, 2011 www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/1025/2011/ Natural Hazards doi:10.5194/nhess-11-1025-2011 and Earth © Author(s) 2011. CC Attribution 3.0 License. System Sciences Co-seismic luminescence in Lima, 150 km from the epicenter of the Pisco, Peru earthquake of 15 August 2007 J. A. Heraud and J. A. Lira Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima 32, Peru Received: 15 November 2010 – Revised: 31 January 2011 – Accepted: 28 February 2011 – Published: 5 April 2011 Abstract. The first photographs of Co-seismic Lumines- scribed by Richter (1958). In Japan, EQLs were systemati- cence, commonly known as Earthquake lights (EQLs), were cally reported as early as the 1930s by Terada (1930, 1931) reported in 1968 in Japan. However, there have been docu- and the first photographs of EQLs were published by Ya- mented reports of luminescence associated with earthquakes sui (1968). Features of EQLs were reported in Japan after since ancient times in different parts of the world. Besides the Kobe earthquake of 17 January 1995 (M = 7.2) and their this, there is modern scientific work dealing with evidence features studied by Tsukuda (1997). In the Mediterranean of and models for the production of such lights. During the Sea region, EQLs were reported in association with earth- Peru 15 August 2007 Mw = 8.0 earthquake which occurred quakes occurring from ancient times until recently. In well- at 06:40 p.m. LT, hence dark in the southern wintertime, sev- documented research, Papadopoulos (1999) worked with eral EQLs were observed along the Peruvian coast and ex- data from 30 earthquake events and concluded that EQLs tensively reported in the capital city of Lima, about 150 km were reported only in association with strong (M ≥ 6.0), northwest of the epicenter. These lights were video-recorded shallow earthquakes and at epicentral distances up to about by a security camera installed at the Pontificia Universidad 140 km. No EQLs were reported to accompany intermediate- Catolica del Peru (PUCP) campus and time-correlated with depth earthquakes. EQLs were also reported in NW Turkey seismic ground accelerations registered at the seismological by Stothers (2004). St-Laurent (2000) reported EQLs as- station on campus, analyzed and related to highly qualified sociated with earthquakes as small as M = 4.8 in Quebec, eyewitness observations of the phenomena from other parts Canada. Omori et al. (2007) have researched on anomalous of the city and to other video recordings. We believe the ev- radon gas emissions associated with electromagnetic phe- idence presented here contributes significantly to sustain the nomena previous to large earthquakes, which could be the hypothesis that electromagnetic phenomena related to seis- case in the large earthquake of 2007 in Pisco, Peru. Re- mic activity can occur, at least during an earthquake. It is cently, Fidani (2010) published a comprehensive study of highly probable that continued research in luminescence and EQLs associated with the 6 April 2009 Aquila earthquake in the use of magnetometers in studying electromagnetic activ- Italy in which 241 EQL reports were considered out of 1057 ity and radon gas emanation detectors will contribute even phenomena. Some have coincidental characteristics with the more towards determining their occurrence during and prob- lights described here, and will be discussed in Sect. 4. The ably prior to seismic activity. EQLs can be seen from a distance of a few kilometers and have been reported to show usually white, light-blue and blue colors, although reddish and darker colors also occur 1 Introduction and may last from a fraction of a second to several seconds. Co-seismic Luminescence, which hereafter will be called Some theories (Mizutani et al., 1976; Lockner et al., 1983; “Earth Quake Light” (EQL) for reasons of brevity, is a sec- St-Laurent et al., 2006) have been proposed to explain EQLs ondary effect of a seismic event, which can take place in the accompanying earthquakes. A model has been proposed by atmosphere during a particularly strong earthquake, as de- Liperovsky et al. (2005) that considers the injection of radon gas and aerosol gases into the atmosphere and ionosphere to explain the enhancement of electromagnetic activity previous Correspondence to: J. A. Heraud to earthquakes. Later, Liperovsky et al. (2008) considered a ([email protected]) model for the generation of electric fields with time scales Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1026 J. A. Heraud and J. A. Lira: Co-seismic luminescence in Lima Fig. 1. To the right, the map of central Peru and the location of the epicenter. To the left, the area of Lima showing referenced locations. Fig. 2. View from the cockpit of a Beechcraft plane on its landing approach. Fig. 3. View from the Control Tower at the Lima International Air- port. Although this view corresponds to a higher altitude position, it illustrates the diffused nature and broad view of the lights reported from 1 to 100 min and infrared radiation in aerosol clouds as coming from the ocean between the coast and the islands. caused by radon in the atmosphere, before strong earth- quakes and near the fracture areas. Freund (2010) proposes a thorough solid state theory to explain pre-earthquake signals Historically, there are several references to flame-like based on phonon-assisted electron hopping or positive hole lights related with seismic activity from the colonial times propagation of charge carriers. An important compendium in Peru. Even though they do not constitute scientific evi- on luminescence related to seismicity will soon be published dence, it is worth mentioning some of them in relation to the by Derr et al. (2011), in the Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geo- scenarios described in this research. Esquivel y Navia (1980) physics. refers to the earthquake of 9 July, 1586, which was felt be- On the experimental side, Brady and Rowell (1986) car- tween Lima and Cusco “along 150 leagues” and to the chron- ried out the first laboratory experiments trying to explain the icles of the great earthquake of 31 March 1950 in Cusco dur- origin of EQLs. They observed light emission by rocks that ing which people saw “fire volcanoes burst” and the refer- were subject to high pressure. Recently, Bleier et al. (2010), ence was obviously to volcano-like activity since there are performed pertinent rock fracturing experiments on the field no actual volcanoes there. But the most interesting chronicle and confirmed the existence of electromagnetic activity prior he has refers to the great earthquake in Lima on 28 Octo- to the actual fracturing. ber 1746, the largest reported in this city, accompanied by a Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 1025–1036, 2011 www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/1025/2011/ J. A. Heraud and J. A. Lira: Co-seismic luminescence in Lima 1027 Fig. 5. Position and orientation of the security camera at the PUCP Fig. 4. The continental coast from “San Lorenzo” island, look- campus, looking west. In the background is the Pacific Ocean and ing SSE. The witness was located by the pier, close to the yellow San Lorenzo Island. An eyewitness described the luminescence he thumbtack. The image is a computer recreation approved by the observed from the island, as coming out of the ocean, in a southeast witness. The striped light columns appeared to be coming out of direction, towards the coast. the ocean but rocky islets have been identified in that area. NW of the epicenter, has been posted by individuals in pop- very large Tsunami that washed the coast up to two leagues ular video sites on the Internet. Besides the access to videos (about 5 km) inland. It describes the flame-like phenomena from security cameras at PUCP, two more security cameras, that occurred between 02:00–03:00 a.m. LT on 7 October one at the Lima airport and the other at a sea-side open air 1746, twenty one days before the earthquake on the island shopping mall (Larcomar) have been analyzed. We have of San Lorenzo, 5 km west of the Lima coast (referenced also conducted extensive follow-up interview sessions with in this research). Captain Manuel Romero, in charge of the four highly qualified eyewitnesses: an air-traffic controller prison at the island, decided to temporarily free the prison- on duty at the control tower of the Lima airport, an airplane ers at that time so they could watch the phenomena and tes- pilot on his landing approach at the Lima airport at the time tify to having seen it. Perez-Mallaina (2001) cites a chron- of the earthquake, the chief security officer of the Lima air- icle archived at the Madrid National Library that describes port and a Peruvian navy officer on San Lorenzo Island over- the Lima earthquake in 1746 in which Juan Felix Goicochea looking the Lima coastline. The description of what they saw refers to have seen “flames” close to the people. Finally, has been analyzed as far as determining the angle of arrival, the Lima newspaper “Mercurio Peruano” (1791) refers to the extension, morphology, color and duration of the lights, as earthquake in Pasco on 14 October 1791, at 09:17 p.m. LT, well as determining the coincidental areas of some of the during which “discharges like those of a marching regiment” light sources. Their testimonies have been translated into were observed, in obvious reference to St. Elmo’s fire. computer-generated images with their participation and ap- During the Peruvian earthquake of 15 August 2007, a sig- proval, as shown in the following figures.

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