  The possibility of earthquake prediction is one of the key open questions in
modern geophysics. We propose an approach based on the analysis of common
short-term candidate precursors (2 weeks to 3 months prior to strong
earthquake) with the subsequent processing of brain activity signals generated
in specific types of rats (kept in laboratory settings) who reportedly sense an
impending earthquake few days prior to the event. We illustrate the
identification of short-term precursors using the groundwater sodium-ion
concentration data in the time frame from 2010 to 2014 (a major earthquake
occurred on February 28, 2013), recorded at two different sites in the
south-eastern part of the Kamchatka peninsula, Russia. The candidate precursors
are observed as synchronized peaks in the nonstationarity factors, introduced
within the flicker-noise spectroscopy framework for signal processing, for the
high-frequency component of both time series. These peaks correspond to the
local reorganizations of the underlying geophysical system that are believed to
precede strong earthquakes. The rodent brain activity signals are selected as
potential "immediate" (up to 2 weeks) deterministic precursors due to the
recent scientific reports confirming that rodents sense imminent earthquakes
and the population-genetic model of Kirshvink (2000) showing how a reliable
genetic seismic escape response system may have developed over the period of
several hundred million years in certain animals. The use of brain activity
signals, such as electroencephalograms, in contrast to conventional abnormal
animal behavior observations, enables one to apply the standard
"input-sensor-response" approach to determine what input signals trigger
specific seismic escape brain activity responses
