'Scientists believe a new Australian volcano is in the making after the apparent awakening of a volcanic hotspot off the Victorian coast. According to Geoscience Australia an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale occured on the 7th February 2002, 50 kilometres south of King Island. King Island lies in Bass Strait between Victoria And Tasmania. Scientists calculate that this area is one of the most likely spots for the birth of a new Australian volcano within the next 100 years or within tens of thousands of years'. 'The fact that there were earthquakes taking place in the area means that geologically, the hot spot has to be regarded as active, even though it hasn't produced volcanic eruptions as such'. See Geoscience Australia media release, The Age 11/4/2002, Australasian Science July 2002.

'Electromagnetic signals "can predict earthquakes". Seismologists are divided.' http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp

New Scientist 20/12/2001

'Ball Lightning scientists remain in the dark'. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp

Mexico

Photograph taken by Alfonso Reyes, 19th Dec. 2000.

The singular luminosity caught by a photographer of Notimex, and published yesterday on the cover of Daily MILLENIUM, awoke the interest of investigators of the phenomenon of UFO.

"It could be a UFO, but also a phenomenon known like terrestrial lights, luminosities that emanate from the Earth and for which exist explanations", director of 'Mutual UFO Network'.

The photograph was taken Tuesday to 6:10 hours after one of the most intense explosions in the volcano during the last days. Steve Aron, of the Astronomical Society of the United States, said after observing the image "what appears in the photo is not a UFO". Aron said that "It could be a power plant expelled by the volcano, like incandescent matter or steam ignited by some reason ".

MUFON....'Francisco Trujillo of NTX Mexican News agency contacted me to determine MUFON's opinion of a photograph taken on Tuesday, December 19, 2000, by a professional photographer Alfonso Reyes of Notimex. He has taken a remarkable photograph of a brightly lit object.... He was capturing the awakening and explosive eruption of the volcano that is seen in the background..... He claims he did not see the object while taking the shot at 6:10 AM. The object was observed after the picture was developed. The photograph is a 20 second time exposure taken with a 24 MM lens. The time exposure accounts for the streak that reveals the objects trajectory that appears to descend towards the volcano. It is difficult to discern if the object is moving toward or away from the camera. Popocatepetl means " Smoking Mountain" and the volcano started new eruptions the previous day'.

'The object may be the result of Earth Lights; volcanic related earthquakes, pyro plastic flows, or plasmas caused by tectonic earth stresses. Many UFOs have been seen and photographed in the area in the past. For example, on June 29, 1999, the surveillance camera of the CENAPRED, the goverment agency for disasters prevention was monitoring Popocatepetl taking time lapse photos at intervals. A disk shaped dark object was photographed near the volcano crater at 1:20 PM It emerged from the smoke clouds. Other photos and video of UFOs have been seen. Vocanologists have been concerned that the volcano may explode, but shortly after the photo was taken the volcano mysteriously stopped its eruptions'.

"Most ALP (Anomalous Luminous Phenomena) and their contemporary equivalents, UFOs, are generated by natural geophysical forces, the major source being tectonic stress. Other natural and man made factors include large scale fluid injection into the crust or stress shifts, and changes in major river, lake or reservoir volumes".

"Local displays of ALP should be distributed around areas of stress accumulation and release but be attracted to geometries that promote charge collection. Some forms of seismic activity are coupled to the solar cycle".

Recent Earthquake / Volcano activity :

Geoscience Australia .........http://www.agso.gov.au/bin/listQuakes

Volcano Live ...........http://www.volcanolive.com

' Arabadji (1956), Chalmers (1957, 1967), and Leonov (1965c) considered the possibility that thunderstorm electric fields might focus heavier reactive particles such as cosmic rays into a small region that would become ball lightning and would be sustained by nuclear reactions. Leonov proposed that this model would predict an increased incidence of ball lightning during solar flares when the cosmic ray flux has also increased; furthermore, ball lightning would occur mostly at high altitudes. Markson (1978) and Markson and Muir (1980) proposed that solar variability modulates the Earth's electric field. They found that galactic cosmic radiation is inversely correlated with solar wind velocity. Cosmic radiation is the primary source of atmospheric ionization and hence could influence the electrification of clouds. Lethbridge (1981) confirmed a maximum in thunderstorm frequency 3 days after high cosmic ray counts.

Singer (1971) remarks that such focusing of otherwise diffuse cosmic rays would require strong fields extending over large geometrical regions.'

(from Mark Stenhoff's book 'Ball Lightning - An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics'.)

'Charles Fort was among the first to note that strange 'meteors' appeared coincidently with earthquakes. It was not until the 1960s, however, that ufologist John Keel and French researcher Ferdinand Lagarde linked the appearance of unusual lights with areas of geological faulting and magnetic anomaly. In 1975, Andrew York and I (author) mapped the occurrences of recorded strange phenomena over a number of centuries in Fortean Times. Meteorological anomalies such as 'strange lightning' and reported UFOs had their greatest incidence over the faulted regions of a country.

Two years later Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist and geologist at Laurentian University in Canada, together with Gyslaine Lafreniere, published a study of the United States which similarly indicated a correlation between higher levels of reported UFO activity and the locations of earthquake epicentres.

Persinger and Lafreniere saw UFOs as electromagnetic phenomena arising from the tremendous energy associated with the constantly rising and falling tectonic stress in the Earths crust. They visualised fields of forces operating evenly and quietly over large regions which could become focused at any given time in a few small areas of particular geological resistance or instability such as fault lines, mineral deposits, unyielding rock outcrops, hills, mountains and so on'.

From Fortean Times, 'Earthlights and the Re-invention of Ufology', October 1997. http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/103_earth.shtml

One of the earliest studies is by W.B. Clarke,1834. Clarke migrated to Australia around 1838 and is known as 'the father of Australian geology'. 'On certain recent Meteoric Phenomena, Vicissitudes in the Seasons, prevalent Disorders, &c, contemporaneous, and in supposed connection, with Volcanic Emanations '. No.2. MNH, 1834,VII,193-202. W.B. Clarke, Dorset, England, March 4, 1834.

'Mystery Lights have Victorians asking..... What is out there ?'

'Almost nightly for the past year in a Grampians valley in the state's west near Stawell, locals have watched in awe as mysterious lights pulse and hover.

They report that up to 30 lights - mostly white, but some red or yellow - float through the uninhabited valley and silently congregate above the plains'.

Full text : http://www.geocities.com/bookorphanage/lights.html

Stawell Times News, 5 July, 2002 Stawell.

'Grampians Lights Not Unfamiliar'

...'Following reports of Steve's latest sightings in the Grampians, a resident of Halls Gap made contact with the Stawell Times News to relate a story from years gone by.

The resident remembers well reports of UFO sightings in the National Park back when Lake Bellfield was under construction (1962-65).

" I remember when Lake Bellfield was being built, a couple of men were coming off duty one night and saw the UFOs hovering over the dam. They were stone cold sober and it was reported at the time that the lights seemed to be attracted to powerlines," she said'.

Bizarre light effects, a physical trace and a credible witness, near Burkes Flat, ( about 100km from Lake Bellfield ), Victoria, Australia, on 4 April, 1966.

More here: http://www.theozfiles.com/burkes_flat_case.html

The Min Min light occurs in the legends of the aborigines of Australia and in traveller's tales. In Queensland:

"...around Boulia and Winton, there appears from time to time an unmistakable light - a luminous flourescent shape that fades and brightens, recedes and advances across the flat never ending plain. It has mystified men for centuries. It fascinates. It begs you to follow. And it can be eerie and frightening on that lonely dark plain at night".

The Min Min light is reputed to be oval in shape and to move in irregular circles and spirals. It has been seen close to the surface and as high as 300 metres. Riders claim that their horses are not disturbed by it.

Shilton, Pam; 'The Min Min Light', Journal of Meteorology, U.K. 8:248, 1983.

Although the nature of Min Min Lights is not known I speculate they are similar if not the same as Earth Lights as observed elsewhere in the world and may be the same phenomena as that seen in the Grampians, Victoria.

More on Min Min Lights: http://www.castleofspirits.com/minmins.html