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Why are the so-called earthquake lights seen in Mexico City produced?

2021-09-09T01:35:59.226Z


It occurs when a seismic wave hits the ground. It is a harmless phenomenon in itself, except for the fact that it is caused by strong tremors that are often fatal. We spoke with a resident who experienced an earthquake for the first time in the Mexican capital and was surprised by the triboluminescence.


MEXICO CITY.– Fernando Gutiérrez was lying on his bed Tuesday night, in pain.

He was recovering from a tremendous blow that had occurred the day before when he fell from the stairs of his house, when the seismic alert began to sound in Mexico City for a 7.1-degree earthquake.

"I was not going to go out, so I told my girlfriend: 'Come out because I can't get up," Gutiérrez said in a telephone interview with Noticias Telemundo.

However, at the insistence of his partner, he assures that he got up as best he could and went up to the roof, just one floor above his apartment in the Del Valle Norte neighborhood.

"I went up and the first thing I saw was the World Trade Center to see how much it was moving," Gutiérrez said.

At that moment,

the sky over Mexico City was filled with strange green, white and purple lights

.

The 31-year-old mathematician took out his phone and started recording.

Despite the unusual nature of this phenomenon, it was the second time he witnessed it, although it was the first time he was able to record it.

The last time he saw it was in September 2017, when a devastating earthquake struck the city that caused more than 350 deaths and the sky also lit up with flashes.

Why happens

Scientists have a name for the phenomenon that Gutiérrez and thousands of Mexicans observed this Tuesday:

triboluminescence or earthquake lights

.

“This happens when a seismic wave hits the ground.

The friction generated with some rocks such as basalt can cause electric currents that are expelled to the surface, ”meteorologist Carlos Robles explained to Noticias Telemundo.

“The interaction of the movement of the ground with the atmosphere is real.

There are records that show that an earthquake can produce electric shocks and light, ”

added the expert.

It is a phenomenon that in itself is harmless

, experts indicate, except for the fact that it is caused by strong tremors that are often fatal.

"Ay madrecita linda!": Mexicans tell how they experienced an earthquake that reminded them of the destruction of 2017

Sept.

8, 202102: 01

 People did not understand

Although the earthquake ended with no deaths in the Mexican capital and one death in Acapulco, Guerrero, where it had its epicenter, for many city residents it was still a traumatic experience.

Víctor Ángeles, a 25-year-old systems engineer who moved to Mexico City less than 3 years ago,

experienced his first earthquake amid explosions of transformers

that were confused with the flashes of triboluminescence.

In a video that he shared on social networks, people's screams are heard as the sky fills with lights and the street is completely dark after the explosion of one of the transformers in the Vallejo neighborhood, in the north of the city.

Terrified, people looked up at the sky and searched for where to be safe, not fully understanding if the lights were produced naturally or because of the breakdown of electrical circuits.

More than 1.5 million homes in Mexico City lost their connection to the electricity grid

at midnight Tuesday due to transformer failures and explosions related to the powerful earthquake.

“Literally, you could hear the transformer explode and you could see the flash in the sky, so it was a combination of the two.

People were terrified, you can hear in the video the neighbors and the children shouting and screaming, gentlemen also deprived of fear.

I didn't even know what to do, ”Ángeles said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

Minutes after the chaos, the light returned to the neighborhood.

Little by little, the residents of Angeles returned to their homes and he did the same.

He said there were no injuries or major incidents despite the fear everyone initially felt.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-09-09

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