Stressed rocks can turn the air into glowing plasma before an earthquake
Under intense tectonic pressure, quartz-rich rocks can act as natural capacitors, generating massive electrical fields that transform the surrounding air into glowing, high-temperature plasma just before an earthquake strikes.
Stressed rocks deep within the Earth's crust can generate powerful piezoelectric effects, creating electric fields of up to 100 kilovolts per meter. These fields ionize the atmosphere, turning the air into a glowing plasma that reaches temperatures of 3,000 degrees Celsius. These earthquake lights often appear as vertical beams stretching up to 10 kilometers into the sky.
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