Title: Satellite Thermal Infrared Anomaly:a Short-term and Impending Earthquake Precursor before the Wenchuan Ms8.0 Earthquake in Sichuan,China
Abstract: Based on an interpretation and study of the satellite remote-sensing images of FY-2C thermal infrared 1st wave band (10.3~11.3 μm) designed in China, the authors found that there existed obvious and isolated satellite thermal infrared anomalies before the 5,12 Wenchuan Ms8.0 Earthquake. These anomalies had the following characteristics: ①The precursor appeared rather early: on March 18, 2008, i.e., 55 days before the earthquake, thermal infrared anomalies began to occur; ②The anomalies experienced quite a few complex evolutionary stages: the satellite thermal infrared anomalies might be divided into five stages, whose manifestations were somewhat different from each other. The existence of so many anomaly stages is probably observed for the first time in numerous cases of satellite thermal infrared researches on earthquakes; ③Each stage lasted quite a long time, with the longest one spanning 13 days; ④An evident geothermal anomaly gradient was distributed along the Longmen Shan seismic fracture zone, and such a phenomenon might also be discovered for the first time in satellite thermal infrared earthquake researches. This discovery is therefore of great guiding and instructive significance in the study of the earthquake occurrence itself and the trend of the post-earthquake phenomena.The results of the authors' studies have proved once again the correctness of the regularity that, as a short-term and impending earthquake precursor, thermal infrared anomalies would surely appear before an earthquake (especially the earthquake with magnitudes ≥Ms5.0). The application of satellite thermal infrared anomaly phenomena to the short-term and impending earthquake prediction and research seems to be one of the most effective methods for a breakthrough in earthquake prediction.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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