Some considerations between radon and earthquakes in the crater of L’Aquila

Abstract

This paper is focused on developing statistical models to analyze the connection between radon emissions and earthquakes. Owing to our personal interest and the large amount of local data available in the period before and after the main shock, we decided to run our analysis on the recent earthquake which affected the Italian city of L'Aquila. We investigated the viability of a statistical method employing radon emissions to predict earthquakes. The results show a possible connection between radon and earthquake, but it is useless, in our opinion, to use this connection to forecast the magnitude of the seismic events.

Marine Transform Faults and Fracture Zones: A Joint Perspective Integrating Seismicity, Fluid Flow and Life

“…In Taiwan, Yang et al (2006) identified significant variations in CO 2 and CH 4 emissions from mud pools along regional fracture zones so that monitoring of CO 2 and CH 4 seems to represent a potentially valuable tool for detecting intimate relationships between seismic activity and fluids. Helium (Sano et al, 1986(Sano et al, , 2014, argon (Mamyrin and Tolstikhin, 1984) and radon concentrations (Fu et al, 2008;Attanasio and Maravalle, 2016) have been used in continental settings to analyze the response of terrestrial fluid emanation with respect to seismic activity. It is important to note in this context that the relationship between gas emissions and earthquakes seems to rely mostly on the gas flux variability (Kita et al, 1982;Field and Jennings, 1987;Hirose et al, 2011).…”