No abstract

Strong electromagnetic (EM) anomalies have been detected, from MHz to kHz, prior to the three destructive earthquakes occurred during 1995–1999 in Greece. The observed sequence of EM anomalies before the Kozani‐Grevena earthquake (K‐G) of Ms = 6.6 on May 13, 1995 showed some important characteristics: (i) an increasing electromagnetic emission rate; (ii) an emergence of lower kHz frequencies with large amplitudes at the tail of the MHz electromagnetic anomaly; (iii) an electromagnetic quiescence approximately a few hours before the earthquake and (iv) a total absence of EM anomalies during the aftershock period. All these features are compatible with those reported by other authors. This sequence of the field observed EM signals revealed, in terms of emission pattern, similarities to the laboratory acoustic (AE) emissions during different stages of failure preparation process in rocks.

Abstract. In analogy to the study of critical phase transitions in statistical physics, it has been argued recently that the fracture of heterogeneous materials could be viewed as a critical phenomenon, either at laboratory or at geophysical scales. If the picture of the development of the fracture is correct one may guess that the precursors may reveal the critical approach of the main-shock. When a heterogeneous material is stretched, its evolution towards breaking is characterized by the appearance of microcracks before the final break-up. Microcracks produce both acoustic and electromagnetic (EM) emission in the frequency range from VLF to VHF. The microcracks and the associated acoustic and EM activities constitute the so-called precursors of general fracture. These precursors are detectable not only at laboratory but also at geophysical scales. VLF and VHF acoustic and EM emissions have been reported resulting from volcanic and seismic activities in various geologically distinct regions of the world. In the present work we attempt to establish the hypothesis that the evolution of the Earth's crust towards the critical point takes place not only in a mechanical but also in an electromagnetic sense. In other words, we focus on the possible electromagnetic criticality, which is reached while the catastrophic rupture in the Earth's crust approaches. Our main tool is the monitoring of micro-fractures that occur before the final breakup, by recording their radioelectromagnetic emissions. We show that the spectral power law analysis of the electromagnetic precursors reveals distinguishing signatures of underlying critical dynamics, such as: (i) the emergence of memory effects; (ii) the decrease with time of the anti-persistence behaviour; (iii) the presence of persistence properties in the tail of the sequence of the precursors; and (iv) the acceleration of the precursory electromagnetic energy release. Moreover, the statistical analysis of the amplitudes of the electromagnetic fluctuations reveals the breaking of the symmetry as the theory predicts. Finally, we try to answer the question: how universal the observed Correspondence to: K. A. Eftaxias (ceftax@phys.uoa.gr) electromagnetic critical behaviour of the failing system is?

Experiments on the plastic deformation of LiF ionic monocrystals under uniaxial compression are performed with simultaneous recording of acoustic ͑AE͒ and electromagnetic ͑EME͒ emissions. A strong correlation between AE and EME events has been found, which clearly demonstrates that the observed EME is caused by a dynamical interaction between moving dislocations and charged vacancies in the ionic lattice during work hardening. The mechanism proposed to explain EME is based on the assumption that gliding edge dislocations sweep up the vacancies of a preferable sign. As a result, when a dislocation pileup is formed, a certain nonequilibrium charge density is accumulated at its head, resulting in electric polarization of the deformed crystal. As the external loading increases, a locked dislocation pileup bursts through the stoppers and quickly loses its bounded charge. The relaxation of this charge produces an intrinsic polarization current generating an electric pulse. It is assumed that the relaxation current can be described as an athermic viscous motion of vacancies under the kinetic friction force ϳBv ͑B is the friction coefficient and v is the vacancy velocity͒ in a self-consistent electric field determined by the distribution of the total charge density. A nonlinear integrodifferential equation of motion for the nonequilibrium charge density is derived. For a special form of the initial charge density distribution, an automodel solution of this equation describing the polarization current has been built. The electrical signal generated by an acting slip system has been calculated. By comparing the calculated and experimentally measured electric signal patterns, the friction coefficient for the linear chain of vacancies ͑the analog of an edge dislocation extra plane͒ in LiF has been estimated to be B Ӎ 0.9 ϫ 10 −5 g cm −1 s −1 . This value is in accordance with the corresponding coefficient for dislocations in ionic lattices.

Transient variations of the electric field are detected, prior to the failure of a rock sample which is subjected to uniaxial compression at a variable rate. These precursory electric signals are attributed to the stress induced polarization of the sample and seem to have a form similar to the so called Seismic Electric Signals (SES), which are detected in Greece by the VAN network, prior to earthquakes. The emitted electric signals seem to follow in form the variations of the first time derivative of the externally applied stress. A tentative model for the origin of these signals is also discussed.