"Scientists say strange cloud formations could alert nations to impending earthquakes, according to a report today.

The theory comes after two distinctive cloud formations were observed above an active fault in Iran, each before two large earthquakes occurred.

According to the New Scientist, geophysicists Guangmeng Guo and Bin Wang of Nanyang Normal University in Henan, China, noticed a gap in the clouds in satellite images from December 2004 that exactly matched the location of the main fault in southern Iran.

The gap in the clouds stretched for hundreds of kilometres and was visible for several hours.

It also remained in the same place despite the clouds around it moving.

Thermal images of the ground showed that the temperature was higher along the fault.

On February 22nd 2005 - 69 days later - a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the area, killing 600 people.

In December 2005 a similar cloud formation was spotted and 64 days later an earthquake with a magnitude of six hit the region.

Geophysicists argue that there could be a number of reasons for the link between clouds and earthquakes.

They say that an eruption of hot gases from inside the fault could have caused water in the clouds to evaporate.

Another theory is that when rocks are squeezed, positively-charged ions form in the air above.

The cloud formations have led some to propose that they could be used for earthquake prediction.

However Mike Blanpied of the US Geological Survey's earthquake hazards programme told the New Scientist: "There is no physical model that explains why something would suddenly occur two months before an earthquake, and then shut off and not occur again."

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