Did you watch the news this week?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQXDt4VdS0E
This guy is watching the bizare animal, birds and fish behaviour as earthquake warning; last week were lots of dead fish in Redondo Beach, and below, more down along the coast in Acapulco:,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1365538/Japan-earthquake-Swarms-fish-coast-Acapulco-caused-tsunami.html
Happens all the time here on the west coast.
Step A) Large numbers of sardines reported in the harbors feeding off plentiful food sources, usually spurred by recent mild rains in the days before that was stuff down the drainages and channels and into the harbors.
Step B) A Santa Anna wind condition develops (off shore blowing strong and violent gusts, warm dry air). The wind gradualy lessens in severity as it reaches to coasts, neutralizing the cool onshore flow, waves die down and the surface tempuratures spike and increase on the surface of the cool Pacific Ocean. Usually surf city out here, the ocean becomes so flat and still you can walk on it all the way out to the Catalina Islands (check the surf reports for the days before, during, and after these fish kills for reference). (related, kinda, this is why die-hards surf in the storms, braving the bad weather and contaminated storm runoffs going into the ocean for the killer waves being driven on-shore out here by the seasonal storms that come ashore. And as the clouds and rain passes, you usually still have a couple days worth of waves to enjoy as the rest of the system finishes passing through the region).
Step C) The large numbers of sardines, in a small confined zone of water (an enclosed harbor), suddenly caught in wave-less, warming waters (blooming amounts of bacteria competing for the now rapidly disipating oxygen in the enclosed water area) were quickly overcome when the sun rose that morning after a night of warm santa annas and pushed the bacteria over the limit of tellerance for the fish, who then suffocated.
I swear, everytime there's an earthquake, who keeps giving us California yuppies a bad name? These wanna-be yuppies who don't live here give us a worse name than the ones who do and I have to live and put up with. Everyone needs to get a hint, there is not a spec or corner on this planet that hasn't changed over thousands of years due to seismec activity, quakes happen everywhere at any time. At least I live in a prone region that is A) aware, B) educated and C) prepared for these potentialy catastrophic seismic events. 8 out of 10 homes here are capable of withstanding a major earthquake (may suffer damage, but won't colapse) and/or are prepared to be self-sufficient for up to two weeks (water, food, etc.) with many prepared for even longer periods of time. Personally, it's always a worry, but I'm more concerned about the rest of this country and the impact a major seasmic event might have on a region like New York whenever a quake gets around to hitting them.
