Separation of volatile components from rocks under mechanical loading as the source of hydrogeochemical anomalies preceding earthquakes

Varshal, G. M.; Соболев, Г. А.; Barsukov, V. L.; Koltsov, A. V.; Kostin, B. I.; Kudinova, T. F.; Stakheyev, Y. I.; Tretyakova, S.P.

doi:10.1007/bf00874612

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Crustal Hg vapor migrates to the surface environment along conduits provided by faults and fractures in bedrock (63). This phenomenon is now being investigated as a potential indicator of earthquake activity, based on the discovery that Hg levels in groundwater and soil air increase dramatically (up to 100-fold) just before an earthquake occurs (64)(65)(66). In the vicinity of fault and fracture systems, a significant proportion of Hg residing in soil exists as elemental vapor and dissolved ionic species adsorbed to organic and mineral surfaces (9,22,58).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Methods of Estimating Atmospheric Mercury Fluxes in Remote Areas

Rasmussen¹

1994

Environ. Sci. Technol.

157

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Methods of Estimating Atmospheric Mercury Fluxes in Remote Areas

Rasmussen¹

1994

Environ. Sci. Technol.

157

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“…Mercury is extremely volatile and highly mobile; it can migrate a considerable distance in the ground, as evidence by detection of surfac'e mercury anomalies over some deeply buried base and precious metal deposits[McCarthy, 1972]. The mercury concentrations in groundwater and soil gas are usually fairly stable but have been observed to increase abruptly by 1-2 orders of magnitude several hours to several days before some earthquakes in the USSR[Varshal et al, 1985]. Mercury monitoring is thus considered useful for short-term earthquake prediction.Golubev et al[1983] monitored CH½ in near-surface air in the vicinity of the Kopetdag fault in USSR during 1978-1979.…”

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confidence: 99%

Gas geochemistry applied to earthquake prediction: An overview

King¹

1986

J. Geophys. Res.

319

164

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Terrestrial gases in groundwater and soil air have been extensively studied in recent years in seismically active areas, especially in USSR, China, Japan, and United States, in search of premonitory changes that might be useful for earthquake prediction. Concentrations of radon, helium, hydrogen, mercury, carbon dioxide, and several other volatiles have been found generally to be anomalously high along active faults, suggesting that the faults may be paths of least resistance for the terrestrial gases generated or stored in the earth to escape to the atmosphere. Temporal gas concentration changes with durations of a few hours to many months have been observed before many large earthquakes at a relatively small number of favorably situated stations at epicentral distances of up to several hundreds of kilometers. These “sensitive” stations are generally located along active faults, especially at intersections or bends of faults, or some other structurally weak zones, possibly because of tectonic strain concentration at such places. However, gas concentrations, especially those measured at or near the ground surface, may also be significantly affected by meteorological, hydrological, and other nontectonic changes in the environment. The nontectonically induced variations must be carefully eliminated or recognized in the search of true earthquake‐related anomalies.

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“…The intensity of the exhalations strongly varies for different species such as methane, argon, carbon monoxide and di-oxide, helium, etc. (Kawabe, 1984;Satake et al, 1984;Varshal et al, 1984;Huixin and Zuhuang, 1986). Even though fewer and scattered (Tsunogai and Wakita, 1995;Toutain et al, 1997;Sugisaki et al, 1996;Amonte et al, 2021 and therein references), the measurements of other gases show statistical distributions and a functional dependences -from the (postulated) associated earthquake events -similar to those pointed out for the radon observations (Reimer, 1980;Reimer, 1990;O'Neil and King, 1980;Craig, 1980;Sugisaki and Sugiura, 1985;Sugisaki and Sugiura, 1986;Nagamine and Sugisaki, 1991).…”

Section: Measurements Of Other Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 53%

A Critical Review of Ground Based Observations of Earthquake Precursors

2021

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We aim at giving a short review of the seismo-associated phenomena detected on ground that in recent years have been investigated as possible earthquake precursors. The paper comes together with a companion article–published on this same volume by Picozza et al., 2021–devoted to summarize the space-based observation of earthquake–precursors by satellites missions. In the present work, we give an overview of the observations carried out on ground in order to identify earthquake precursors by distinguishing them from the large background constituted by both natural non-seismic and artificial sources. We start discussing the measurements of mechanical parameters and variations of geochemical fluids detected before earthquakes; then we review thermal and atmospheric oscillations; finally, observations of electromagnetic and ionospheric parameters possibly related to the occurrence of impeding earthquakes are discussed. In order to introduce a so large field of research, we focus only on some main case studies and statistical analyses together with the main hypotheses and models proposed in literature in order to explain the observed phenomenology.

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Separation of volatile components from rocks under mechanical loading as the source of hydrogeochemical anomalies preceding earthquakes

Cited by 16 publications

References 5 publications

Current Methods of Estimating Atmospheric Mercury Fluxes in Remote Areas

Current Methods of Estimating Atmospheric Mercury Fluxes in Remote Areas

Gas geochemistry applied to earthquake prediction: An overview

A Critical Review of Ground Based Observations of Earthquake Precursors

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