Disaster warning: a whale of a tale
On the Internet，it is already a spreading tale：did the mass stranding(搁浅)and deaths of whales on an Australian beach signal the coming of the earthquake?
What is true is that three weeks before the earthquake off Indonesia，an Indian academic，Dr Kumar posted a note about a recent whale stranding in Tasmania，and predicted the possibility of an earthquake．“It is my observation，tracking the data and drawing the location of shaking and earthquakes．I have noted with alarm last week's report of mass deaths of whales on an Australian beachside. I will not be surprised if, within a few days，a massive quake hits some part of the globe，because the unusual ‘death-wish’ of whales and its fate has the inter-relationship．The earthquake may need a further looking into”．
On the discussion board of the British Medical Journal，a letter from a research fellow
Chinthamani in Mangalore, said Professor Kumar had predicted the earthquake“almost to the
day”．He said the professor wrote that he had made a five-year record of dates，located whale stranding and observed a remarkable connection between the events．
Does it have any substance(实质)?The answer is that it may have some．Mark Simmonds is
the director of science at Britain's Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society．He says hat most whales are intensely social animals and act together. if one heads into the beach，the others follow．It may be an accident；sometimes human agency may be partly to blame；sometimes the Earth's magnetic field(磁场)may play a role．“But nobody has shown any correlation between whale stranding and earthquakes．If he is saying there is，he would have to present the data to prove his case ”.
Kumar's original email strongly suggests that he is in possession of just such data．Did he have a list of the correlaftons between previous whale stranding and earthquakes?
“I don't have a lot of these things，”he said，when I asked him．So Kumar appears to have no evidence．Yet he undoubtedly did post his warning of a huge event，just three weeks before the biggest earthquake of the past 40 years. Chance? Luck? Science?

灾难前兆：鲸的传说
在互联网上，流传着这样一个故事，鲸群在澳大利亚海滩上搁浅并死亡，标志着地震将要到来？
事实是，在印度尼西亚地震发生的前三个星期，一位印度学者库马尔博士发表了一项记录，近来鲸在塔斯马尼亚搁浅并预示可能发生地震。“据我观测，追踪数据资料，绘制地震震动位置图。我警告地在上周的报告中说明了群鲸在澳大利亚海滩上的死亡。几天里，我毫不惊奇，因为鲸奇特的死亡愿望和它们的命运有着相互联系，巨大的震动撞击着地球的某一部分，地震可能需要进一步的研究。”
在英国医疗期刊的论坛上，一位来自邦加罗尔的研究学者Chinthamani来信说，库马尔教授预言地震几乎在同一天发生。他说教授写到他做了5年的数据记录，定位鲸搁浅的地方，观察发现事件间的非凡联系。
那么有实质性物质吗？答案是可能有。马克西蒙兹，鲸和海豚保护管理协会会长，说多数鲸是极度群居并集体活动。如果其中一只鲸朝沙滩游去，其他的就会跟随，可能要发生事故。又是人类专门机构负部分责任，有时地球磁场起一定作用。“但是没有人表明鲸搁浅和地震之间的相关性。如果他说有相关性，就必须拿出资料证明的观点。”
库马尔最初的邮件强烈表示他拥有大量这方面的资料，他有先前鲸搁浅和地震相关性的列举吗？
“我没有太多这些东西。”我问起他时，他这样回答。因此库马尔好像没有证据。然而，他毫无疑问的发表重大事件的警告，就在过去40年的一最大场地震后的三个星期。偶然？侥幸？科学？