The first ever photographic evidence of the phenomenon was provided by Japanese geologist Yutaka Yasui.
When Mexico City was jolted by an 8.2 magnitude earthquake on Friday, it was the strongest tremor to hit since the devastating 1985 quake that caused the deaths of at least 5,000 people.
Even though the quake on Friday is itself a phenomenon that has come under serious discussion, what social media is buzzing with is the strange lights seen above Mexico as the ground shuddered.
There are a number of videos posted on YouTube that show mysterious lights flashing in the sky as people run out of their houses frantically due to the thunderous earthquake.
The phenomenon was first thought to be lighting from a storm or the lights of a landing plane but now there seems to be scientific evidence of the phenomenon in a study published in 2014.
According to the study, during an earthquake, there is a possibility that lights in the form of bluish flame, orbs, or quick flashes, such as the one seen above Mexico City can occur. This phenomenon is attributed to a particular type of rock.
Leila Ertolahti, adjunct professor of geology at Farleigh Dickinson University, told Gizmodo, “In certain types of rocks this accumulation of stress can break up pairs of negatively charged oxygen atoms in the ground, allowing them to flow up to the surface as an electrical current through cracks in the rock.”
The professor also said the reason for the phenomenon is the presence of enough atoms that ionize air pockets and form the plasma, which is basically a charged gas that emits light.
https://twitter.com/lalocedeno/status/906022311731462144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Ftrevornace%2F2017%2F09%2F08%2F8-2-earthquake-strikes-mexico-produces-mysterious-bright-flashes-light%2F
The first ever photographic evidence of the phenomenon was provided by Japanese geologist Yutaka Yasui in 1973 when he took the picture of reddish and blue clouds above the sky of Matsushiro which was struck by a series of earthquakes in 1965 and 1967.
The scientific evidence of the mysterious light during Mexico City earthquake has shunned the rumor mongers, who speculated UFOs and other trivialities as the reason for the light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMmrpiqF9A