Early warning of Coastal Earthquakes using Land, Ocean and Atmospheric Parameters
- Paper number
IAC-06-B1.4.09
- Author
Prof. Ramesh Singh, Indian Institute of Technology, India
- Coauthor
Mr. Guido Cervone, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Anup Prasad, Indian Institute of Technology, India
- Coauthor
Mr. Menas Kafatos, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Recent studies on various land, ocean, atmosphere and ionosphere parameters have revealed significant changes prior to the occurrence of earthquakes and during earthquakes. Availability of moderate (to high) spatial as well as temporal resolution satellite data enables monitoring and mapping of these potential precursor parameters. Occurrence of earthquakes at a depth of 5 km and below and associated slow deformation gives changes in various parameters near the Earth surface and the surrounding regions. The changes on the infrared thermal temperature of the land and several parameters of the land, ocean, atmosphere and ionosphere can be linked to the emission of acoustic and electromagnetic waves. We aim to present the analysis of multi-sensor remote sensing data for recent earthquakes which show significant changes in the surface latent heat flux, chlorophyll concentrations, water vapor, total electron content, and infrared thermal temperature. Detailed analysis of about 400 earthquakes have shown that the earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 occurring with focal depth up to 33 km are characterized by the anomalous surface latent heat flux, water vapor, chlorophyll concentrations, total electron content and infrared thermal temperature. It has been found that the nature of the coupling and the effect are quite variable and depend on the nature, location and focal depth of the earthquakes. Anomaly in these precursor signals is strong and larger than 5 standard deviation, particularly for recent earthquakes near the coast (Gujarat and Sumatra). Precursor signals prior to these strong coastal earthquakes will be discussed in detail for sea level heat flux and GPS (Global Positioning System) derived precipitable water vapor (hourly data) for Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004 that also show good matching in terms of the appearance of anomalous signal (precursor) few days prior to the occurrence of the earthquake. Few examples from the recent Gujarat, Sumatra and Pakistan earthquakes will be presented which show the use of multi sensor data in early warning of earthquakes. A detailed discussion will be presented on the potential of integrated approach using multi-sensor and multi-parameter for prediction of mega earthquakes close to the coast.
- Abstract document