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Rodrigo Torrejon
Geog 1000
Antoni Allred
5 December 2015
Solar Flares and Earthquakes
Solar Winds affect us in ways we may have never thought they did. With new research,
our scientist have found new ways to predict weather, earthquakes, and volcanic activity from
information brought by our sun. The magnetic field of the sun also has a big impact on our earth
and our sun's magnetic field takes turns changing peaks in polarities, it takes about 11 years for
the sun to switch polarities. in 2014, Dr. Holland of Ohio State University performed a
dependence analysis of large earthquakes and solar magnetic fields and learned that M8+
earthquakes tend to occur during peak magnetism or polarity reversal, recent earthquakes like the
one in Chile Sept 2015 fit this example. Solar flares occurs when the magnetic energy of the sun
has built up in its atmosphere that it's forced to release.
Radiation is emitted throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum and can affect
objects further than pluto. Once the radiation reaches our earth, some of it may be blocked off by
our ozone, but some of it remains within our earth and can travel to different areas building up in
some parts of the world. Dr. Holland found a pattern with these thermal energy spots and the
earthquakes occurring. Ever since the discovery (2013), other scientist have joined the study to
try and find out when the next time to predict an earthquake can be. Thus bringing a new field of
study for scientist who look to pursue this kind of work.
A man by the name of Ben Davidson has been recording all the thermal energy given by
the sun, and has found some interesting points. Not all predictions are correct but most of his

predictions were accurate. We used to believe the solar flares only contained elements of Helium
and Hydrogen but recent studies shows that the solar winds contain every element known, very
few of it but it certainly is there. It is solars winds interacting with earth's upper atmosphere that
cause the Auroras, the ions in the solar wind hitting oxygen and nitrogen and exchange of energy
create the displays. The Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) is the electromagnetic output of
earth via thermal energy. The OLR readings is what we can find useful in the search for
earthquakes in the near future but this only tells us a few to several hours from the quake. Ben
Davidson is the person who did a test trial for 2 weeks to see if any earthquakes would match the
readings and he himself began making predictions off of the readings. All the earthquakes he
predicted were quakes of M6 or higher. These are ways to predict earthquakes, by watching OLR
anomalies. Hopefuly this can impact our science in a big way, I would love to see it advance in
research but it has only begun.

Works Cited

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"Severe Weather Video from The Weather Channel." The Weather Channel. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Dec. 2015.

"Earthquakes Are Predictable: OLR Trial Period Results." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 13 Dec.
2015.