The physical nature of thermal anomalies observed before strong earthquakes

By Sergey Pulinets, Dimitar Ouzounov, A. Karelin, K. Boyarchuk, L. A. Pokhmelnykh. 2006

201 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The paper examines the effect of air ionization on the thermal balance of the boundary layer of atmosphere. In seismically active areas the increased radon emanation from active faults and cracks before earthquakes is the primary source of air ionization. The problem is analyzed both on microscopic and macroscopic levels and in both cases the significant changes of the air relative humidity and air temperature are obtained. This happens due to the water molecules attachment to the newly formed ions (or in other words, condensation) which leads to the excretion of the latent heat. Obtained results permit us to explain the changes of the surface temperature and the surface latent heat flux increase before earthquakes observed by remote sensing satellites, as well as ground based measurements of the air temperature and relative humidity variations before the Colima earthquake (M7.6) of 2003 in Mexico, Hector Mine earthquake (M7.1) of 1999 in USA and Parkfield earthquake (M6) of 2004 in USA. These findings are also supported by the results of active experiments where the installation of artificial ionization of atmosphere is used.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/407222cf4cb851b8c2d02d03e428b36742ece3b9

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In Artificial Intelligence

1. Dimitar Ouzounov
2. A. Karelin
3. F. Freund
4. Sergey Pulinets
5. D. Davidenko
6. Lou‐Chuang Lee
7. C. Kuo
8. J. Huba

In Geophysics

1. C. Kuo
2. Sergey Pulinets
3. Lou‐Chuang Lee
4. J. Huba
5. Dimitar Ouzounov
6. D. Davidenko
7. A. Karelin
8. F. Freund

Citations in the corpus

• An improved coupling model for the lithosphere‐atmosphere‐ionosphere system (2014, background): “…resistance in the global electric circuit [Pulinets et al., 2000; Pulinets and Legen’ka, 2003; Pulinets et al., 2003; Pulinets and Boyarchuk, 2004; Pulinets et al., 2006; Pulinets, 2009; Pulinets and Ouzounov, 2011], (2) a stressed rock-atmosphere–ionosphere coupling model [Kuo et al., 2011]…”
• Outgoing long wave radiation variability from IR satellite data prior to major earthquakes (2007, unknown): “These measurements are supported by the calculations of anomalous flux of the latent heat over the areas of increased tectonic activity within a few days around the time of strong earthquakes (Ouzounov and Freund, 2004; Pulinets et al., 2006a,b).”
• Air ionization at rock surfaces and pre-earthquake signals (2009, background): “…leading to the emanation of warm gases (Gornyi et al., 1988), diffuse CO2 release from the ground, causing a local greenhouse effect (Quing et al., 1991; Tronin, 2000), and air ionization due to radon leading to the release of latent heat during condensation of water vapor (Pulinets et al., 2006).”
• Physical bases of the generation of short-term earthquake precursors: A complex model of ionization-induced geophysical processes in the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere system (2015, background): “…in the Earth’s lithosphere, atmo sphere, and ionosphere (LAIC) was initiated in 1998 (Pulinets et al., 1998) and through several modifica tions (Pulinets et al, 2000, 2002, 2006; Kim et al., 2002; Pulinets and Boyarchuk, 2004) was completed quite recently (Pulinets and Ouzounov, 2010;…”