• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.393-400
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• 2018

Despite some skeptical views on the possibility of earthquake prediction, observation and evaluation of precursory changes have been continued throughout the world. In Korea, the public concern on the earthquake prediction has been increased after 2016 $M_L5.8$ and 2017 $M_L5.4$ earthquakes occurred in Gyeongju and Pohang, the southeastern part in Korea, respectively. In this study, the abnormal increase of groundwater level was observed before the 2016 $M_L5.8$ Gyeongju earthquake in a borehole located in 52 km away from the epicenter. The well was installed in the Yangsan fault zone, and equipped for the earthquake surveillance. The abnormal change in the well would seem to be a precursor, considering the hydrogeological condition and the observations from previous studies. It is necessary to set up a specialized council to support and evaluate the earthquake prediction and related researches for the preparation of future earthquake hazards.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.313-324
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• 2018

In order to study the earthquake precursor in the Korean peninsula, long-term variations of chemical composition, radon-222, and water level were measured at depths (-60 m, -100 m) in the groundwater monitoring wells of the Daejeon and the Cheongwon area. The pH and electrical conductivity of groundwater in the monitoring wells showed some relationship with the Pohang earthquake. The ${HCO_3}^-$ and $Cl^-$ concentration of groundwater in the Daejeon and $Mg^{2+}$, $Cl^-$ and ${NO_3}^-$ in the Cheongwon showed some relation with the Pohang earthquake. However, it is not distinct to find the relationship between their variation and earthquake. The radon-222 concentration in Daejeon was observed a significant increase from a minimum of 162 Bq/L prior to the earthquake to 573 Bq/L right after the earthquake, that indicating a strong correlation with earthquakes. In the case of groundwater levels, it can not find some correlation between earthquakes and continuous decreasing trend in the monitoring wells of Daejeon and Cheongwon area. However, water level of a national groundwater observation well within 10 kilometers of Pohang epicenter was recorded as an abrupt drop right before the earthquake. Conclusively, although the location of monitoring wells is more than 180 kilometers apart from the epicenter of the Pohang earthquake, the radon gas in groundwater can be considered as a reliable candidate among earthquake precursors. The pH, electrical conductivity, ${HCO_3}^-$ and $Cl^-$ among hydrochemicals showed some correlation with earthquake should be monitored during a longer term to recognize distinctly as a precursor of earthquake.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.824-833
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• 2009

We analyzed a total of six months of geomagnetic data obtained at Cheonyang observatory, which is operated by Korean Meteorological Administration, to monitor earthquake precursors. Geomagnetic transfer functions (GTFs) and polarization values, which reflect the time-variations of the resistivity of subsurface, were estimated from 3-component geomagnetic data. The time-variant fluctuations were compared with the earthquake events occurred in the same period. Now that the daily GTFs show fairly irregular variations, we can not identify any correlation with the already occurred earthquakes and Kp index. On the other hand, we detect clear increases of the Ultra-Low-Frequency (ULF) band polarization values before the earthquakes, but the similar features are also observed even though the earthquake did not occur. This result may indicate that these time-variations are not just due to the earthquake precursor. For further understanding about these results, we need to investigate the relationship between the previous earthquake events and the geomagnetic data of other observatories.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.93-101
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• 2005

Seismicity changes associated with foreshocks of large Korean historical earthquakes of MMI > VIII are investigated for earthquake prediction study. A number of tests showed that b-values of foreshocks associated with these large earthquakes are most stable for precursor period of 13 years before the earthquake and rectangular source area of $1.1^{\circ}$ by $1.1^{\circ}$ around the epicenter. The b-values of foreshocks for 11 large events of MMI > VIII for the above foreshock area and precursor period turns out to be smaller than the value of 0.36 for the whole historical earthquakes with average 0.27. Epicenters of these foreshocks of small b-values are distributed close to the location of the main large earthquake. These observations indicate a possibility of predicting large earthquakes by closely monitoring the change of b-value for an extended period over decades in the Korean peninsula.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.115-121
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• 2005

Seismicity changes associated with foreshocks of large Korean historical earthquakes of MMI > VIII are investigated for earthquake prediction study. A number of tests showed that b-values of foreshocks associated with these large earthquakes are most stable for precursor period of 13 years before the earthquake and rectangular source area of 1.1o by 1.1o around the epicenter. The b-values of foreshocks for 11 large events of MMI > VIII for the above foreshock area and precursor period turns out to be smaller than the value of 0.36 for the whole historical earthquakes with average 0.27. Epicenters of these foreshocks of small b-values are distributed close to the location of the main large earthquake. These observations indicate a possibility of predicting large earthquakes by closely monitoring the change of b-value for an extended period over decades in the Korean peninsula.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2020

Recent studies have suggested that detectable ionospheric disturbances precede earthquakes. In the present study, variations in the vertical total electron content (TEC) for eight earthquakes with magnitudes of M ≥ 5.5 in the western United States were investigated during the solar maximum of 2013-2015 using United States total electron content (US-TEC) data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Analyses of 12 earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.0 ≤ M < 5.5 in the same region were also performed. The TEC variations were examined for 40 days, including the times when the earthquakes occurred. The results indicated a correlation between earthquakes with magnitudes of M ≥ 5.0 and ionospheric TEC anomalies. TEC anomalies occurred before 60% of the earthquakes. Additionally, they were more frequently observed for large earthquakes (75%, M ≥ 5.5) than for small earthquakes (50%, 5.5 > M ≥ 5.0). Anomalous increases in the TEC occurred 2-18 days before the earthquakes as an ionospheric precursor, whereas solar and geomagnetic activities were low or moderate.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.683-691
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• 2009

Geomagnetic variation around May 2, 2009 when Angdong earthquake broke out was analyzed using the data recorded at the Cheong-yang geomagnetic observatory, KMA. Firstly, we predict the geomagnetic variation by PCA analysis of geomagnetic data, and then compare the predicted value with the observed data to find any significant differences in residuals. Secondly, wavelet semblance technique is applied to compare the time series before and after the earthquake. Some meaningful change is detected in the Z-field. Thirdly, eigen value analysis for the 3 component geomagnetic data is performed. The location of the observatory was too far from the epicenter and the magnitude was too small to find decisive precursory phenomenon. Nevertheless we can detect some significant correlation between the earthquake and the variation of the geomagnetic field. Various signal processing methods applied in this study will give some opportunity to find precursory effects in the future.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.76-87
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• 2021

In this study, temporal trend of researches in earthquake with groundwater level, water quality, radon, remote sensing, electrical resistivity, gravity, and geomagnetism was searched from 2001 to 2020, using the journals indexed in Web of Science, and the number of articles published in international journals was counted in relation to the occurrences of earthquakes (≥Mw 5.0, ≥Mw 6.0, ≥Mw 7.0, ≥Mw 8.0, and ≥Mw 9.0). The number of articles shows an increasing trend over the studied period. This is explained by that studies on earthquake precursor and seismic monitoring becomes active in various fields with integrated data analysis through the development of remote sensing technology, progress of measurement equipment, and big data. According to Mann-Kendall and Sen's tests, gravity-related articles exhibit an increasing trend of 1.30 articles/yr, radon-related articles (0.60 articles/yr), groundwater-related articles (0.70 articles/yr), electrical resistivity-related articles (0.25 articles/yr), and remote-sensing-related articles (0.67 articles/yr). By cross-correlation analysis of the number of articles in each field with removing trend effect and the number of earthquakes of ≥Mw 5.0, ≥Mw 6.0, ≥Mw 7.0, ≥Mw 8.0, and ≥Mw 9.0, radon and remote sensing fields exhibit a high cross-correlation with a delay time of one year. In addition, large-scale earthquakes such as the 2004 and 2005 Sumatra earthquake, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2010 Chile earthquake are estimated to be related with the increase in the number of articles in the corresponding periods.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2010

Since the 1990's, a number of ULF geomagnetic disturbance associated with earthquake occurrences have actively been reported, and polarization analysis of geomagnetic fields becomes one of potential candidates to be capable of predicting short-term earthquake. This study develops the modified polarization analysis method based on the previous studies, and analyzes three-component geomagnetic fields obtained at Cheongyang geomagnetic observatory using the developed method. A daily polarization value (the ratio of spectral power of horizontal and vertical geomagnetic field) is calculated with a focus on the 0.01 Hz band, which is known to be the most sensitive to seismogenic ULF radiation. We analyze a total of 10 months of geomagnetic data obtained at Cheongyang observatory, and compare the polarization values with the Kp index and the earthquake occurred in the analysis period. The results show that there is little correlation between the temporal variations of polarization values and Kp index, but remarkable increases in polarization values are identified which are associated with two earthquakes. Comparison the polarization values obtained at Cheongyang and Kanoya observatory indicates that the increases of polarization values at Cheongyang might be due to not global geomagnetic induction but the locally occurred earthquakes. Furthermore, these features are clearly shown in normalized polarization values, which take account in the statistical characteristics of each geomagnetic field. On the basis of these results, polarization analysis can be used as promising tool for monitoring the earthquake-precursory phenomenon.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2017

The cases of animals unusual behavior have been reported occasionally before a major disaster occurs. Could animals unusual behavior associated with a major disaster occurrence, if so, could we foreknow a disaster occurrence? The purpose of study is to quest an answer through literature reviews on the relation between animals unusual behavior and premonitory symptoms of an earthquake. These empirical studies are classified three parts according as methodological framework; statistical analysis, experimental analysis, observation analysis. The results are simply divided as two, 'animals unusual behavior may be seen as a precursor of pre-disaster phenomena' and 'difficult to see.' A number of studies have been performed abroad, however there is no one in Korea. Most of the studies point out common limitations-difficult to verify the reliability of data, accidentally get and fewer samples of data, difficulty of ensuring appropriate data, etc. That is why more related research with animals unusual behavior and disaster occurrence is needed to validate cause-and-effect relation of animal unusual behavior and pre-disaster phenomena.