40 PILOT WHALES BEACH ON NORTH ANDAMAN ISLAND

STRANDING CAUSED BY UNDERSEA EARTHQUAKE SOUTH OF NICOBAR ISLAND


October, 2012:  Forty pilot whales beached themselves on the 21st of October. They died in the sand inside Elizabeth Bay on North Andaman Island on the western banks of the Andaman Sea. This is the first time that such a large number of whales beached in the area.






Since whales injured by rapid and excessive changes in ambient water pressure lose their ability to navigated immediately after the injury, their swim path is always downstream and under direct control of the surface currents. This means there must be clear evidence that the source of the barotraumatic injury is indeed upstream from the beaching site, and that the distance traveled downstream corresponds with the speed of the current and the swim speed of the injured whales.  In other words, many factors much agree, otherwise the quake has to be disqualified.

Following the surface currents, the distance from the epicenter of this quake to the beach is about 1,000 miles. The time of travel should be about 10 days at ~100 miles per day.  The quake occurred on 29 September. The whales beached on 21 October--22 days later, more than twice as long as it should taken them to reach Elizabeth Bay.  The time and distance traveled does not agree.

The solution is simple.  There is upwelling along the shores of the Andaman Sea. Surface currents general flow out to sea during upwelling.  This would have kept the pod a few miles offshore.  Following the chart of general circulation above, the pod could have easily made a complete loop around once and then returned back to Elizabeth Bay.  They could circled around inside the Andaman Sea, or went outside and around the Bay of Bengal and returned to the area of the stranding 22 days after the earthquake.

The time for a complete loop around once and return back to the area of beaching agrees with the time and distance traveled.  This also agrees with the average beaching that occurs about 25 days after the pressure disturbance. This 25 day average is though to be because the whales are more fresh and aware of where they are for the first few weeks.  The become more lethargic and inclined to beach as their ordeal wears on.

High winds, reported during the time of the beaching, overcame the upwelling.  After the 22 days at sea, the whales were tired and stress and were blown into the bay where they beached.

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2015
Dec 09: Whale Dangerous Earthquake South of Perth 
Dec 09: Seaquake causes dolphins to strand Baja California   
Nov 23: Seaquakes kill 322 baleen whales in Chile    (shocking)  
Aug 24: NOAA whale scientists dumbfounded   
Aug 14: stranded dolphin is determined to be deaf   
Aug 08: seaquake causes pilot whales to strand Nova Scotia   
Jul   27: is our stranding solution flawed as scientists claim   
Jun  01: pilots stranded Isles of Skye from Reykjanes Ridge   
May 22: dead whales washing ashore on the California Coast   
May 10: earthquake kills 20 Sei Whales near Chile Coast   
Apr  10: seaquake strands 150 melon-headed whales in Japan   

2014   
Dec 25: navigation failure in mass stranded whales  (most popular)   
Dec 08: seaquake causes 7 sperm whales to beach Australia   
Nov 24: seaquake beaches 3 sperm whales at Golden Bay   
Nov 04: seaquake beaches 60 pilot whales in Bay of Plenty   
Oct 29: nine pilot whales strand on Prince Edward Island   
Apr  11: 60 pilot whales beach in Bay of Plenty   
Mar 20: Cape Ray Newfoundland 37 dolphins beach   
Mar 14: undersea quakes louder than nuclear explosions   
Mar 13: seaquakes cause whale strandings 32 million years   
Mar 02: blue whale killed by seaquake in Kuwait   
Feb 27: seaquake kills young killer whale   
Feb 23: predicting mass beachings based on seaquakes   
Feb 21: lessons in understanding why whales beach   
Feb 18: seaquake Greenland Sea kills 3 sperm whales   
Feb 12: nine orcas killed by seaquake   
Jan 30: Cape Cod mass stranding predicted   
Jan 20: seaquake causes 39 pilot whales to strand Florida   
Jan 16: seaquakes beach 65 pilot whales in Golden Bay   
Jan 05: seaquake beaches 30 pilot whales in Golden Bay   

2013   
Dec 06: why did pilot whales beached in the everglades?   
Apr 30: seaquake beaches 6 killer whales in Iceland   
Apr 25: beached whales stop war games   

2012   
Dec 08: seaquake beach pilot whales South Carolina   
Nov 15: pilot whales beach at Golden Bay, New Zealand   
Nov 04: seaquake causes two pods to beach at King Island   
Oct 28:  pilot whales strand on North Andaman Island   
Oct 17: earthquakes cause New Zealand whale stranding   
Sep 09: earthquake kills pregnant sperm whale   
Sep 03: seaquake strands pilot whales in Scotland   
Aug 24: two quakes cause near beaching in Cape Verde   
Jul  28:  200 Pilot Whales Northwest of Iceland   
Mar 19: Four Sperm Whales Wash Ashore in China   

2011   
Dec  31: world's rarest whales killed by earthquake   
Mar 06: 52 melon-headed dolphins strand in Japan   

2008   
Nov 20: 52 Pilot Whales Stranded in Tasmania


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