Word: afters
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
In the previous three years, she had watched the toads increase in number with the waxing of the moon. But last year was different. The moon grew from crescent to gibbous, and suddenly the toads were gone. "It went from there being 90 to 100 toads down to six, and...
Five days after the toads disappeared, she had a possible answer: an earthquake struck in the middle of the night. The 6.3-magnitude quake was the deadliest to hit Italy in nearly 30 years, killing roughly 300 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. The medieval city of L'Aquila...
It was one of the strokes of luck from which science is made. The seismic shift continued to set off aftershocks almost every day, but Grant stayed to count her toads. When a full moon rose three days after the quake, a few toads risked a return. But then their...
There are many anecdotal accounts of animals acting strangely before tremors, but there's little hard science. "This is the first study that monitors unusual behavior in animals for a significant period before and after a major earthquake," Grant says. In the 1st century, the Greek historian Diodorus recounted how...
Some seismologists have doubts about Grant's research, saying the toads' behavior could have just been a fluke. After all, critics say, the L'Aquila earthquake was preceded by minor shocks that also worried the city's residents. "If there was a fright among the toads, it would have been...