Anomalous geomagnetic activities before the Karangasem - Bali, Indonesia earthquakes on December 13, 2022

Abstract

A series of earthquakes occurred on Bali Island, Indonesia, on December 13, 2022. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded four shallow earthquakes around Karangasem - Bali with magnitude (M) > 4 at that time. The largest was the M 5.2 earthquake, which occurred at 10:38:21.67 UTC with 10 km of depth. We analyzed the anomalous geomagnetic activities during these earthquakes by utilizing the geomagnetic data from the Bayan geomagnetic station located on Lombok Island, less than 100 km from the earthquake’s epicenters. We conducted the polarization ratio analysis by applying the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the five hours of night geomagnetic data (16:00 - 21:00 UTC). The spectral power values of X, Y, and Z geomagnetic data at frequencies 0.04 - 0.06 Hz were calculated and compared with the disturbance storm time (Dst) to find their correlation. The Pearson correlation analysis indicates that they are significantly uncorrelated. Finally, we calculated the Sz/Sg to analyze the geomagnetic anomalies and found them 6 - 11 days before the earthquakes at frequencies 0.04 - 0.06 Hz. We consider that these anomalies are possibly caused by the M 5.2 earthquake since it had the highest magnitude, Es, and Kls values.