What is 'Earthquake Light' and Why Was it Spotted in Delhi? Viral Sky Video Baffles Residents

Twitter user Ashutosh Pathak has shared a video of ‘Earthquake Lights’ which he claims were seen yesterday when tremors were felt in Delhi. This happened when the earthquake with 7.7 magnitude hit 90 km from Kalafgan. The tremors were also felt in other parts of northern India. According to reports, the affected countries include Turkmenistan, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

For those who don’t know, as per the United States Geological Survey, ‘Earthquake Lights’ may be observed in the form of glow in the sky or the balls of light. It can also be in the form of sheet lighting, or streamers.

Scientists don’t fully understand the cause of this phenomenon. In the video shared by Twitter user Ashutosh, the sky can be seen changing its colours – from red to purple. “EQL seen in Delhi during #earthquake,” read the caption. Have a look:

The video, since posted, has garnered over 356K views. Many can be seen enquiring about the phenomenon. “EQL by the high stress before and during an earthquake. After the ionisation, the ions travel up through the cracks in the rocks. Once they reach the atmosphere these ions can ionise pockets of air, forming plasma that emits light,” wrote a twitter user. Another person mentioned, “The sky changes the colour during the earthquake It’s called EQL in geology.”

Even though there is no specific reasoning behind ‘Earthquake Lights’, there are many theories for the same. According to Nat Geo, Freund and colleagues claimed that the lights are caused by electric charges activated in some particular rocks during seismic activity. As per the scientists, these lights appear disproportionately before or during earthquakes. Some scientists also believe they can serve as an indicator of a possible earthquake in a particular area.

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