Groundwater level changes on Jeju Island associated with the Kumamoto and Gyeongju earthquakes

Abstract

Groundwater levels on the monitoring wells on Jeju Island were monitored, which were caused by the M 5.4 earthquake in Gyeongju City area, South Korea, at 11:32:54 on 12 September 2016 (UTC time) and the Kumamoto earthquake, Kyushu, Japan, at 16:25:06 on 16 April 2016 (UTC time). The groundwater levels changed after 2–3 min by the generation of the Gyeongju and Kumamoto earthquakes and exhibited spikes or oscillations depending on the magnitude of the earthquakes. The groundwater level change caused by the Gyeongju earthquake (M 5.4) was mostly larger than that caused by the Kumamoto earthquake (M 5.4). The reason is explained by that the energy of the Kumamoto earthquake with high attenuation could not be effectively transmitted to Jeju Island since the earthquake took place in low Q region whereas a higher energy of the Gyeongju earthquake with low attenuation arrived on Jeju Island because the earthquake occurred in the south-eastern part of the Korean peninsula belonging to the high Q crust. Besides the seismic energy from the Kumamoto earthquake was scattered and reflected on the Tsushima-Goto fault zone between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, with a strike in the ENE-WSW direction that elongates to the east of Jeju Island.

Keywords

• gyeongju earthquake
• kumamoto earthquake
• groundwater level change
• jeju island
• korean peninsula