Subject: Jim Berkland The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes.
May 14, 2008.
I consider Jim Berkland to be my personal friend. I
had him on the Community Channel TV that I hosted in
the past, in San Jose, Calif. called Science-Faction.
I was once in his home while Stanton Friedman, the
expert in UFOs was there. Jim and Stanton's wifes are
sisters and Stanton visits and stays in Jim's home
while he is lecturing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Here is an interview that a person made of Jim
Berkland.
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Interview with James Berkland
James Berkland is a geologist who worked for the
United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) from 1973 to
1994. He is well-known for his controversial earthquake
prediction methods that include calculating the number
of missing pets ads in the newspapers of
earthquake-prone areas.
Berkland’s interest in geology began as a child, as
he says his dad was a `rock-hound'. After earning his
BA in Geology at U.C. Berkeley in 1958 he went directly
to work for six years with the U.S. Geological Survey,
involving laboratory and fieldwork throughout the
western United States, including Alaska. Then, after
earning his Masters degree in Geology at San Jose State
University in 1964 he accepted the position of
Engineering Geologist with the U.S. Bureau or
Reclamation, based in Sacramento, and for the next five
years worked on engineering projects involving the
storage and moving of water at a number of dam sites,
tunnels and canals in California and Oregon.
Berkland worked on his Ph.D. in geology at the
University of California at Davis until 1972, and
although he passed his Ph.D. orals, he didn’t complete
his dissertation within the required seven years.
However he published more than 50 scientific papers,
many of which utilized his Ph.D. studies, including a
paper delivered at the International Geological
Congress at Montreal in 1972.
Berkland was Assistant Professor of Geology at
Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina
until 1973, where he shared in the discovery of
evidence for Pleistocene glaciation in the Southern
Appalachians. Berkland then moved backed to California
and worked for the U.S.G.S. for over twenty years. He
was the first County Geologist for the most populous
county in northern California, Santa Clara County.
Besides helping to establish geologic ordinances widely
held as models in the field, Berkland served on many
committees and advisory boards.
He also held a position for two years as an adjunct
professor at San Jose State University, and he received
distinguished member awards from the Santa Clara County
Engineers and Architects Association and the SABER
Society at San Jose State University.
Berkland claims that he can predict earthquakes with
over 75% accuracy by calculating the number of lost pet
ads in the newspaper, and observing the lunar-tide
cycles. He has been meticulously saving and counting
lost pet ads for many years, and he says that the
number of missing dogs and cats goes up significantly
for as long as two weeks prior to an earthquake.
Berkland also noted that many earthquakes occurred at
the time of maximum tidal forces associated with the
twice-monthly alignments of the Sun and Moon. In the
70s he began to make informal predictions, scoring six
out of eight during 1974, including the 5.2M
Thanksgiving Day Quake of November 27th. This one hit
the day after he had predicted it at a meeting of
U.S.G.S. geologists, and it synchronistically shook him
and his daughter while they were attending the movie
Earthquake.
Despite Berkland’s successes in earthquake prediction
he found it almost impossible to publish on the subject
in scientific journals. His career began to suffer
although his credentials included fellow****p in the
Geological Society of America and member****p in the
Association of Engineering Geologists, Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute, American Association
for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi Science Honor
Society, Peninsula Geological Society, Seismological
Society of America, and others.
Gravitational variations due to the lunar cycles, he
says, create `seismic windows' of greater earthquake
probability.
When the number of missing pets also suddenly rises,
then a quake is likely to happen. Berkland said he
thinks the U.S.G.S. won’t accept unusual animal
behavior data because it doesn’t fit with their current
scientific paradigm. (Researchers who attempt
earthquake prediction are often lumped into the same
category as fortune tellers and scam artists by
traditional geologists.) It is not surprising then to
hear that Berkland was suspended from his position as
Santa Clara county geologist for claiming to predict
earthquakes--such as the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in
Northern California, which was preceded by numerous
re****ts of odd animal behavior.
When I did the research for Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s
book Dogs That Know When Their Owner’s Are Coming Home,
I set out to replicate Berkland’s findings, and I sat
in the Santa Cruz Public Library for several weeks
counting the Lost Pet ads in the San Jose Mercury News
microfilm collection. I confirmed that Berkland’s
calculations were indeed correct; there was a
significant rise in the number of missing dog and cat
ads in the weeks prior to the 1989 quake. The trouble
was that when I checked the number of missing pet ads
for the year before, during the same time period, there
was also a rise--yet an earthquake didn’t follow the
rise that year. So more counting needs to be done to
determine whether seasonal effects might influence this
phenomenon or not, but it does appear that Berkland is
on to something significant with his method.
Berkland has made many media appearances. He was
interviewed on the Art Bell radio show, and has
appeared on Frontline, Sightings, Strange Universe,
Northwest Afternoon, Town Meeting, Bill Cosby Show, The
Other Side, Two at Noon, Evening Matinee, Jeff Rense
show, George Putnam Show, Mitch Battros Show, Laura Lee
Show, and many other broadcasts. In 1991 he was
featured in the Farmer s Almanac, and his annual
predictions are now published in the Dot Tide Tables.
Berkland also publishes his predictions in a
newsletter called Syzygy, and he maintains Quakeline, a
900-line telephone information service that was
originally nationwide, but is now restricted to the
San Francisco Bay Area. To find out more about
Berkland’s work visit his web site:
www.syzygyjob.com
I interviewed Jim at his home on November 1, 1996,
when he was living in San Jose, California. Jim is a
very friendly guy, and he gets very enthusiastic when
he talks about geology and earthquakes. We spoke about
his career in geology, his methods of earthquake
prediction, and what he thinks the animals are picking
up on that is causing them to disappear prior to
earthquakes.
David: How did you get involved in earthquake
prediction?
James: As a county geologist I came out here in
September of 1973, directly from Appalachian State
University, where I was a Assistant Professor for a
year. But I'm a native Californian, raised in the Bay
Area. I was born down in Glendale, but we moved to
Somoma Valley when I was six years old.
David: How did you first become interested in
geology?
Why don't we start with that.
James: Well, my dad was a rock hound, and I was
brought up in the country, with animals and hikes,
hunting and fi****ng all around there. I'd see different
terrain, and pick up rocks, different pretty rocks,
stick them in the pocket. My dad was interested in lots
of things, and was frustrated in a number of ways. He
was an electrician, a store-keeper, and never had gone
to colleges. He almost started in medicine, but didn't
continue in it.
I went directly from high school to a local Santa
Rosa Junior College.
Then I was going to work for six months and earn
money to go to Berkeley in forestry, but it turned into
almost six years. I worked at the biggest industry in
Sonoma County, which is Sonoma State Hospital for the
mentally retarded. I almost didn't get out of there. It
was handy, only a mile a way from where I lived, and I
had kind of a pleasing job. It was like having Boy
Scout troop. I would take the kids up in the hills for
hikes and things.
Of course, my colleagues there were tickled, because
suddenly instead of 120 kids on the ward, there would
have maybe 75 or less. It was a lot easier to handle
while I was away for four or five hours. I would pack
the kids lunches, and go up and fish up at the creeks.
We'd look at the wildlife, and turn over rocks to see
what's underneath. So I finally I decided there's got
to be a little more.
I'm trained for more than this. It was easy, but it
wasn't challenging, and there was so "many things that
I was interested in, but couldn't seem to follow up on.
So I went down to become a forester.
Part 1.
John Winston. johnfw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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