Our 1994 Earthquake Experience

During the 1994 Northridge Earthquake my wife Patrice, my son James, and myself all had a most unusual experience. Because of this I've always been concerned with an earthquake that might happen at night. For this reason I bought plug-in emergency lights that automatically turn on whenever there is a power outage. I placed these lights strategically throughout our home. On the night of January 14, 1994 our little boy was freaked-out and came into our bed to sleep. I awoke, about 5 minuets before the earthquake, and for some strange reason went into the family room. I was seated opposite our bookcases, when the shaking started. Then, as if a bomb went off, I watched as all my books came flying across the room toward me. I was crawling across the books when my wife and son appeared in the room. I said "Let's get outside." It was a cloudless, moonless night. At first we were puzzled as to why any of the neighbors weren't coming out of their houses. As we stood there in silence I was struck at the sight of a streetlight swaying against a stationary celestial background. Then I saw something that first puzzled, then frightened me. I saw a black line in the sky that ran roughly in a north south direction from horizon to horizon. It was extremely regular with fuzzy sides. The stars were visible behind this line, but just barely. At that moment I realized that the night sky isn't black, as I had always thought, but a deep shade of blue. I became frightened because I thought I was hallucinating. My wife Patrice noticed it too, and she said, "What is that line in the sky?" I was greatly relieved that she saw it too. "I don't know what it is" was my reply. Patrice asked if it was the Milky Way, and I said, "No the Milky Way is bright, and this line is dark."

To this day I still don't know what this "line in the sky" was. I've read that there are "piezoelectric effects" during earthquakes that can cause magnetic disturbances that can cause clouds to instantly form over fault lines. However, this line was perfectly regular, and stretched from horizon to horizon.

I have called Dr. Lucy Jones at Cal-Tech, and told her about this line that we all saw. Lucy was nice, but had no explanation or interest. I have spoken with Dr. Michael A. Persinger. He basically treated me like a wacko.

I'm writing this here to create a record for some future earthquake researcher who may have an explanation for what we all saw.

We all also feel privileged to have witnessed this extremely rare and unknown phenomena.