1 HN user recommended this video1 month2019–2024score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Commenters use it in earthquake threads as an anecdote that animals may sense tremors seconds before humans, and occasionally as a joke about cat alarms.
A one-minute clip from a cat cafe in Japan where sleeping cats wake and look around just before an earthquake begins shaking the room.
“you can clearly see the cats get alerted to something ~10 seconds before the shaking starts” (HN, 2024)
Speaking of cats and earthquakes, I just watched: [this video] ...again. This is a Cat Cafe in Japan, and you can clearly see the cats get alerted to something ~10 seconds before the shaking starts. Do we have an idea of what they are reacting to?
Cats visibly alerted about ten seconds before the shaking.
Cats can probably feel or hear the p waves, which humans usually do not notice, and which travel faster than the more noticeable (to humans) s waves. Here's a video of a bunch of cats in a cat cafe in Japan whose sleep is interrupted by an earthquake. They all wake up and start looking around about 9 seconds before the shaking starts, probably due to sensing the p wave. [this video]
Cats wake and look around seconds before shaking starts.
For fixed locations, there are cheap P-wave detection earthquake alarms based on mechanical pendulums that will give seconds of warning. Example: [link] Also, cat alarms: [this video]
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