It was worth noting that tonight's quake was merely an aftershock of the temblor which killed a number of folk in the East North region a month ago.

"A strong earthquake jolted northern Japan early on Thursday, injuring at least 76 people, trapping hundreds in halted trains and temporarily cutting off electric power to thousands of homes.

"The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said there was no threat of a tsunami from the quake, which struck at 00:26 a.m. Thursday (11:26 a.m. EDT Wednesday) and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and could be felt as far away as Tokyo.

"At the time of this posting, NTV news was reporting a total of 109 injured, but the figure may increase as more information becomes available..."

Here is a shot of those broken tiles.

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"Thirty-one people from across north Alabama had reported to the survey by 9 a.m. today that they had felt the quake, according to the survey's Web site.

"The reports came in from Florence, Killen, Muscle Shoals, Somerville, Tuscumbia, Harvest, Madison, Owens Cross Roads and Huntsville. Two other reports not on the survey came from Tuscaloosa.

"Sandy Ebersole, a geologist in the hazards division of the Geological Survey of Alabama, said it wouldn't be unusual to feel that size of an earthquake as far away as Alabama. "The underlying geology is a little different in the eastern U.S. than the west ... because the crust is little thicker the shock waves will travel farther," she said.

"Earthquakes are not unusual in Alabama, and five have been detected in the state so far this year, Ebersole said. The latest one was a 2.6-magnitude temblor on April 8 centered about 20 miles southwest of Jasper. The biggest one in Alabama history was of 5.1 magnitude in Birmingham in 1916..."

Of the 120 hits this site received after the quake, about 36 originated in Illinois, 20 in Indiana, 13 in Missouri and 12 in Kentucky. Texas, California and Alabama were also particularly active. It is only natural that people shaken by an earthquake, in a part of the world where they are comparatively rare, would be inspired to go online and seek more information on seismic issues in general. It is only logical that a small channel of this localized traffic flood would get directed to my site, via search engines and the like. That is not the exciting thing for me. Rather, it is the nature of the keywords, that these visitors used to reach me. These keywords predominantly revolve around an extrasensory theme. Popular keywords included "earthquake migraine", "earthquake headache", "earthquake sensitive" and "earthquake dizziness". "Dizzy before earthquakes" were the keywords which brought two hits to this site. Two more hits came on the back of the search phrase "headaches after earthquake". "Can earthquakes trigger migraines?" asked one searcher, before being directed my way. Another asked: "Can you feel nauseous before an earthquake?" I must confess I have been feeling nauseous, and dizzy, and at times on the verge of a migraine for the past week now, and I don't even live in America. Perhaps I was keying into the impending Alabama quake, just like all these Google/Yahoo earthquake migraine searchers were. For I am convinced, the only reason all these people from states like Illinois and Alabama went on the Internet after the quake, and searched for information on the link between seismic activity and headaches, is because they in fact had a headache before the quake struck. Or during it, or after it. Which in itself is very interesting, and kind of proof, via Google/Yahoo, that earthquake migraines are a fact.

If ESP exists, wouldn't it be amazing, that a search engine like Google was the vehicle through which you could prove its existence? Just as an earthquake rumbles through space, its energy vibrates through the mental sphere, leaving impressions on the Internet. That is my theory, confirmed again today, by the Illinois earthquake.

m a r c h - 1 6 - 2 0 0 8

Earlier this year, on February 27 2008 in fact, there was a rare and interesting earthquake in the United Kingdom. I heard about it on CNN, and I discussed it with some English chums of mine, at my telephone singing job in Tokyo. Measuring 5.something on the Richter scale, the quake compared with the event which rattled me out of bed in Wollongong Australia in 1989 (the Newcastle Quake), but didn't even come to close, to some of the tremors I have experienced in Japan (to be honest, I don't even notice them anymore. They are that ubiqitious.) It was small, but it happened in a part of the world which doesn't often experience earthquakes, and thus it was news. I didn't pay much attention at the time. But I was today to find, while skimming through my Google Analytics results, that at the same time the pen on the Richter graph was frantically spiking up and down in England, an earthquake was also shaking around my homepage. Things were spiking, not as awesomely powerful as the February 1-3 2008 eruption on my Learning Icelandic site, when 1 per cent of the population of Iceland romped through, but still quite noteworthy nonetheless. Traffic on Earthquake Migraines soared from a typical 0 to 2 folk per day, to 96 on February 27. And then declined, mysteriously. Obviously, there had been some kind of event, to prompt it. Immediately it occurred to me: wasn't that the day of the earthquake in England? I did a bit more research using Analytics, and found that indeed much of that spike originated from the U.K. I discovered some UK forums and blogs had linked to this site, for example Eclectic, Respawned, and so on. However, most of the traffic came from Google and Yahoo inquiries like "earthquake migraine" and "earthquake headache". Laid out in that Google Analytics report, was statistical proof, of the earthquake migraine effect in operation. It seemed as if a fair number of English folk had experienced the elusive earthquake migraine, and were then going to Google and Yahoo for answers and feedback and their own research. Google and Yahoo et al led them to me. But I wasn't the only one to notice this phenomenon. Eclectic wrote: "The earth moved for me and millions of others this morning shortly before 1.00am. Having experienced frequent tremors whilst living in Singapore I knew what was happening but many others didn't. Shortly after the one o'clock news on Talk Sport radio the station was inundated by emails and calls from worried listeners, ringing in from one end of the country to the other.
"When I was living in Asia I began to notice a pattern of symptoms that at first had me baffled: I would get high pitched ringing tones in one ear that would vary in length, pitch and strength. Following the tones I would gradually develop a tight jaw, again varying in severity -- sometimes it would ache and the dull pain would move to my ear and sometimes neck and shoulders or sinuses. Often I would have a feeling as if I was walking on a rolling ship -- slightly dizzy and as if the floor was moving beneath me.
"These symptoms would last two or three days and then vanish or fade away -- then I would hear about a significant earthquake. When looking for information about Migraines on-line for my husband, I came across an article which mentioned the symptoms I had experienced and a sensitivity to earthquakes. I realised there were others like me and began to take more notice of when they happened and how severe they were to see if I could make out a pattern.
"Coming back to the UK I had forgotten about this, so when on Saturday I attended a close friend's wedding and developed the most painful sinus headache, it never crossed my mind that it might be earthquake related. Such was the pain that I drank water for most of the night despite free flowing champagne being thrust at me. At one point I felt the rocking ship feeling and had to excuse myself and return to my room, where all I could do was pace up and down.
"After a fitful sleep, the pain was as bad on Sunday. By now my jaw was aching and my ear was starting to feel pressurised. Later that evening the pain began to ease off gradually. By Monday evening it had subsided to a dull ache, but the dizzy, ship feeling came back around 9.00pm and lasted for a few minutes. By Tuesday evening I felt much better, but experienced a strong ship feeling at around 9.00pm again -- by one o’clock I knew why.
"This morning speaking to people on-line, I've realised many people have had these symptoms over the last couple of days. It makes sense that many should, as surely sometime in the past, sensing an earthquake would have ensured survival? Before the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, many animals acted out of character before the earthquake having sensed something. If we payed more attention to them we could perhaps act in time to prevent such a terrible loss of life in the future.
"We are so out of touch with nature and our own bodies that we ignore and stifle our natural instincts..but listening to other people’s experiences this morning makes me think that we are, perhaps, not that out of touch at all..."

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One lady said on her website: "Laugh all you want - I am an earthquake sensitive of proven abilities. I got my first true migraine living in Los Angeles, about a month after I arrived. A couple of weeks later, Friday afternoon rush hour, and bang! another migraine, just as radio reports of a semi-notable offshore temblor began to filter in. As the months went by, though, my roommate Leticia - an L.A. correspondant for Mexican Vogue, walking the Telemundo beat - noted that every time I felt ill in the slightest, there was a corresponding earthquake within twelve hours or so, sometimes before, sometimes just after. A tiny little tremor? Vomiting, diarrhea. Something in the four-point to five-point range? Migraine headache."

I will see in the future whether having a migraine means that an earthquake must be on its way. I will have plenty of opportunities -- there are usually 5-10 earthquakes here every year! Sooner or later there is going to be a Big One that kills a lot of people, so if I have an advanced warning system such a migraine, it will be a big help to me.

p r o j e c t + m i g r a i n e

I MIGHT NOT EXACTLY BE THE FIRST PERSON TO HAVE SUFFERED SEVERE HEADACHES JUST BEFORE AN EARTHQUAKE STRIKES, AS THESE FOLLOWING TESTIMONIALS REPORT. These testimonials have been culled from the Internet. To read the original report, just click on the link.

One nameless sensitive had this to report on the migraine/earthquake connection: "I have recently begun having severe three day headaches and don't know how to account for that. Also, I documented on several occasions, having severe headaches a few hours prior to an earthquake, both in Washington state and in California and Alaska. This is where the earthquakes were centered."

It turns out there is a body already investigating the link between migraine headaches and earthquakes. According to the Charlotte King Effect site: "There have always been, and will always be, earthquakes. Scientists tell us that you can't predict an earthquake or volcanic eruption, but that's no longer true. Through the efforts of Charlotte King who pioneered Biological Earthquake Prediction, and Chris Dodge of the US Library of Congress, a volunteer research project was born - aptly named Project Migraine. The focus of this project was to prove, beyond coincidence, that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could be forecast, prospective of the event, giving time, magnitude, location and probability.

"It was later discovered that there may be, in addition to Charlotte, hundreds, and even thousands of other people around the world who may be able to "feel and hear" earthquake and volcanic eruptions before they actually take place.

"If you walk into a room and bump into furniture or you go to pour some juice and miss the glass, or go to put sugar in your tea and end up with sugar on the table, you may be clumsy, or you may be a potential biological sensitive..

"If you go to pick up your car keys or a book and drop it, and pick it up again and again it slips through your fingers, these are all symptoms of problems being caused by depth perception, which is affected by the EMF changes your body is responding to..

"If you never get headaches and all the sudden you get one without any particular stress or other trigger, and then just as suddenly it is gone, watch the papers or listen to the news, and see where the earthquake strikes in 12-72 hours.. usually over 5.0 unless it is local to where you are.

"Do you all the sudden crave popcorn.. you don't know why.. you just want it.. this is a definite precursor to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions... the event will hit within 12-24 hours."

e a r t h + q u a k e + s e n s i t i v i t y

THIS IS FROM AN INTERESTING SITE I RECENTLY FOUND ABOUT SENSITIVITY TO EARTHQUAKES -- it is called Earthquake Triggering, Earthquake Precursors, and Earthquake Sensitivity:
"All humans are probably earthquake sensitive to some degree. Some fraction of the population is sufficiently sensitive to be able to clearly tell when a local earthquake is going to occur. A small fraction are sufficiently sensitive to be able to detect signals associated with earthquakes occurring around the world.
"Earthquake sensitive humans may experience physical, random or monthly type hormonal, emotional, and brain activity related responses to those energy field fluctuations. Headaches are among the most common responses. Nausea and dizziness can occur. Some people may experience abrupt, strong, and temporary or even somewhat longer lasting mood swings. High or low frequency tones may be heard in one ear or the other or in both ears at the same time. Short duration muscle jolts are common. Physical pain or some other type of sensation in a hand or foot and in extreme cases actual physical injury can occur. Dreams may be influenced by those energy field fluctuations. Especially sensitive people may begin hearing voices or seeing ghostly images. I believe that some people might begin seeing auras of different colors surrounding other people.
"Some earthquake sensitives can determine from which hand or foot is being affected by those energy field fluctuations etc. roughly where on the planet an approaching earthquake is likely to occur.
"Because water is a good conductor for the low frequency radio waves, earthquake sensitive humans will sometimes experience stronger reactions to the fault zone activity related energy field fluctuations when they stand near a large body of water such as on the ocean shore. Their reactions may get abruptly stronger when they stand near metal water pipes in a house and even when they begin running tap water into the kitchen sink."

I leave the final word to an anonymous testimony I found on the Web, written by a woman with miraculous earthquake prediction powers: