Science Alert May 30, 2021
Seismologists have been aware of brief, subtle anomalies in underground electrical fields leading up to an earthquake, sometimes occurring as soon as a few weeks before the quake happens. Research suggests that when gases interact with newly created crack surfaces, the unpaired electrons within the rock crystal defects are thermally stimulated, released into the crack due to the temperature rise at the crack tip via plastic work, and attached to ambient gas molecules to electrify them in a negative state. Researchers in Japan used a customized lab setup to test the reactions of quartz diorite, gabbro, basalt, and fine-grained granite in scaled-down earthquake-like simulations. They showed that electrified gas currents could indeed be linked to rock fracture. They found that the type of rock and the type of fault made a difference confirming their previous work. Other hypotheses about the electromagnetic bursts include the idea that the rocks themselves could become semiconductors, and other experts do not think these weird bursts are predictors at all. According to the researchers, using their finding it might be possible to detect the electric signal accompanying an earthquake by observing the telluric potential/current induced in a conductor, such as a steel water pipe buried underground…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Schematic view of the experimental setup…Credit: Earth, Planets and Space volume 73, Article number: 90 (2021)