Earthquake Causes Pilot Whales to Beach in Golden Bay, New Zealand
On 5 January 2014, 39 pilot whales stranded at Golden Bay. On 16 December 2013, at 01:07 AM when the pod was likely on a feeding dive, a shallow magnitude 5.7 earthquake suddenly erupted in the seafloor off the West Coast of S. Island, N.Z. The focal point of the seismic shaking--defaulted to 10 km below the ocean's surface--might have actually been no more than 4-6 kilometers deep in the seabed. As shown by the beach ball outlines below, the direction of the first motion in this event was vertical. The P and S waves punched the rock/water interface with up and down motion similar to a gigantic piston, pushing and pulling at the bottom of the water column, generating potent changes in water pressure directly above the epicenter. Seismic over and under pressure disturbances cause barotrauma in the cranial sinuses and air sacs. Since this enclosed air is used as acoustic mirrors to funnel and channel sound waves, the injury immediately disables the biosonar system of all the...