This display of Earthquake light during a large earthquake in Ecuador in 2016 is typical of what people describe during earthquakes. The light emerges from the ground and usually has a white hemispherical center and blue outer edges. The blue resembles daytime blue sky. The flashes last less than a second, are usually co-seismic and different from electrical grid explosions - which are usually much longer and are a range of different colours- usually reddish. EQ Light is obviously best observed at night. Scientists used to be sceptical about these reports but the proliferation of security cameras and smartphones now provide abundant record.

Inside earthquake light during a Magnitude 7 earthquake in Turkey Feb 6 2023 at night. The men are caught in the middle of the white light at the centre of the flash and are unable to stand because of the shaking. The orange light at the end of the video is not earthquake light but a natural gas pipeline which ruptured during the quake and caught fire. 

A typical display of white interior dome with blue edges emerging from the ground.  Romania, 2016, Magnitude 5.6

The guy who had the presence of mind to film this on his smartphone at 2 minutes after midnight seemed to be in a state of suppressed panic. He appeared to be praying in Arabic. Wellington, New Zealand, where the video was taken is about 300 kms north of the earthquake epicentre - showing how original epicentre stresses can start a chain reaction along a network of faults over a long distance.

Spectacular footage of blue and white earthquake light during the Mag 7.8 earthquake in Turkey in 2023. The lights go out as the shaking starts and the city street is bathed in flashes of blue and white. The orange lights are not earthquake related but electrical artefacts probably from sodium vapour lamps. The video ends with the collapse of the building in the left foreground

These 2 photographs, from a Wellington security camera footage taken during the New Zealand Kaikoura earthquake at midnight in 2016, are before-and-after shots of exactly the same scene - taken only seconds apart. In the first frame the earthquake had already knocked out the power grid so everything was in darkness, apart from moonlight. Seconds later the sky lit up with blue-white earthquake light which brought distant hills into almost daylight relief. To the top left of the second photo is an area of blue, similar to blue sky during the day. (Hence we might describe this as literally blue sky at midnight). This is not a reflection on cloud, but luminescence of the air itself giving the same colour as sky-blue in daylight. This segment was taken in the Hutt Valley, Wellington region which had some of the most spectacular displays in the country, even though the epicentre was 300 kms to the south.