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Scientists find records of rare ‘earthquake lights’

So this is awesome. Apparently, under certain conditions, bright lights herald the coming of earthquakes.

Certain types of earthquakes in certain areas can set off blazes of light seconds — sometimes days — before the actual quake. These can manifest as floating balls of light, bluish columns shooting up out of the earth and even reverse lightning, reaching up into the sky from the ground.

Now this phenomenon is extremely rare, so it shouldn’t be depended upon as a warning sign. ;) The article lists the conditions required for earthquake lights to appear, and lists a bunch of recorded incidents where these lights were witnessed.

Unsurprisingly, these lights have been responsible for a few “UFO” sightings.

UFO clouds

Not UFOs.

To me, this is just more evidence of how vast, complicated, and utterly amazing our world is. We really have very little understanding of the world around us, although our knowledge grows every day.
It makes you wonder about the rest of the UFO sightings too. I’m a skeptic when it comes to alien life (especially visiting Earth), but it’s not something I rule out. But our minds like to come up with some explanation – sometimes any explanation – to explain those things we don’t understand.