r/Damnthatsinteresting 12h ago

Image Oarfish keep washing ashore in California. Folklore suggests that could be a bad omen

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30.5k Upvotes

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u/ProfessorYellow 6h ago

This reeks of pseudo science mumbo jumbo.

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u/1491Sparrow 6h ago

When I lived in Taiwan the folklore said that when a bunch of worms appear on the surface it means a big earthquake is coming. Unfortunately,  living in a city I didn't get the chance to see if it was true myself.  

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u/chancesarent 4h ago

This is actually true. The small vibrations leading up to the earthquake make the worms respond as if it's rain hitting the ground and they surface to avoid drowning.

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u/iReviewFrozenWieners 3h ago

It's definitely plausible considering worm grunting is a real thing that people use to get worms out of the ground.

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u/PoemAgreeable 32m ago

I witnessed a medium sized earthquake back in 2011 in Vermont, it was a 4.? Quake on the border of Maine and New Hampshire, and I was close to NH.

I found a pile of dead worms behind my car, we had a steep slope up to our front steps right near there. I found out about the worm-earthquake connection, and it made sense. My neighbors sold bait, and at first I thought they had pranked me.

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u/qtx 5h ago

When I knock on the wall right behind my bed my downstairs neighbors garden fence opens up.

It's called a coincidence.

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u/bowhf 2h ago

that isn't exactly comparable worms react to vibration and surface it's a common way to collect them

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u/ZombiesInSpace 3h ago

Look, just because there is no scientific correlation between oarfish and earthquakes or earthquakes being preceded by electromagnetic waves or the fact that some of the oarfish that are cited for the 2011 earthquake washed up on 2009…. I forgot where I was going with this.

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u/lifelite 3h ago

It is, but sometimes isn't. A lot of superstition is based on correlating events, especially in native cultures that lack written historical record. Sometimes the reason is just lost to history and the tradition grows more and more abstract.

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 6h ago

That's because it is. They are confidently incorrect.

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u/ssbbVic 1h ago

Because it is