Responses to the preparation of strong Kamchatka earth-quakes in the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere system, based on new data from integrated ground and iono-spheric monitoring

Abstract

The experience of short-term forecasting of Kamchatka earthquakes based on complex well measurements at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky geody-namic polygon (PGP) shows that, as a rule, the preparation of strong Kamchatka earthquakes is fairly reliable in the medium-term time scale (months or years be-fore the earthquake). However the determination of the stage beginning imme-diately preceding an earthquake (weeks or days before the main event) is a very difficult task. At present time, the solution of this problem is largely associated with the involvement in the preparation of forecast conclusions of data from continuous monitoring of the ionosphere, carried out by ground-based means of vertical radiosonding and measurements of total electronic content (TEC) using the global navigation satellite system GLONASS and GPS. This is due to the fact that significant changes in a number of ionospheric parameters occur mainly 1-5 days before the Kamchatka earthquakes. The results of the compar-ison of the data of daily monitoring of the ionosphere, including information on TEC, with the data integrated downhole measurements showed a rather high correlation of occurrence of anomalies in the ionosphere before strong earth-quakes with changes in the complex parameters in borehole measurements. As one example, the report presents the results of ionospheric and borehole monitoring obtained in the time neighborhood of the strong (MW = 7.5) the earth-quake that occurred on March 25, 2020 in the area of the Northern Kurils. The results show a high correlation between changes in the specific electrical resis-tivity of the Geospace in the area of the PGP with variations in the TEC and the formation of a number of other anomalies in the ionosphere a few days be-fore the earthquake. These results indicate that it is possible to determine fairly reliably the beginning of the final stage of preparation for a strong earthquake. Currently, methods based on atmospheric parameters monitoring are used quite successfully for predictive estimates of the epicenter and magnitude of an earth-quake: the method of chemical potential corrections for measurements at an altitude of ∼ 100 m, as well as data from measurements of outgoing long-wave infrared radiation (OLR) at the level of the upper edge of clouds (heights of 10 -15 km).