Study: Ozone From Rock Fracture Could Serve As Earthquake Early Warning
— Researchers the world over are seeking reliable ways to predict earthquakes, focusing on identifying seismic precursors that, if detected early enough, could serve as early warnings.
New research, published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters, suggests that ozone gas emitted from fracturing rocks could serve as an indicator of impending earthquakes. Ozone is a natural gas, a byproduct of electrical discharges into the air from several sources, such as from lightning, or, according to the new research, from rocks breaking under pressure.
Scientists in the lab of Raúl A. Baragiola, a professor of engineering physics in the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, set up experiments to measure ozone produced by crushing or drilling into different igneous and metamorphic rocks, including granite, basalt, gneiss, rhyolite and quartz. Different rocks produced different amounts of ozone, with rhyolite producing the strongest ozone emission.
Some time prior to an earthquake, pressures begin to build in underground faults. These pressures fracture rocks, and presumably, would produce detectable ozone.
To distinguish whether the ozone was coming from the rocks or from reactions in the atmosphere, the researchers conducted experiments in pure oxygen, nitrogen, helium and carbon dioxide. They found that ozone was produced by fracturing rocks only in conditions containing oxygen atoms, such as air, carbon dioxide and pure oxygen molecules, indicating that it came from reactions in the gas. This suggests that rock fractures may be detectable by measuring ozone.
Baragiola began the study by wondering if animals, which seem – at least anecdotally – to be capable of anticipating earthquakes, may be sensitive to changing levels of ozone, and therefore able to react in advance to an earthquake. It occurred to him that if fracturing rocks create ozone, then ozone detectors might be used as warning devices in the same way that animal behavioral changes might be indicators of seismic activity.
He said the research has several implications.
“If future research shows a positive correlation between ground-level ozone near geological faults and earthquakes, an array of interconnected ozone detectors could monitor anomalous patterns when rock fracture induces the release of ozone from underground and surface cracks,” he said.
“Such an array, located away from areas with high levels of ground ozone, could be useful for giving early warning to earthquakes.”
He added that detection of an increase of ground ozone might also be useful in anticipating disasters in tunnel excavation, landslides and underground mines.
Baragiola’s co-authors are U.Va. research scientist Catherine Dukes and visiting student Dawn Hedges.
— By Fariss Samarrai
Ozone generation by rock fracture: Earthquake early warning?
Engineering Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA
(Received 10 August 2011; accepted 26 October 2011; published online 14 November 2011)
We report the production of up to 10 ppm ozone during crushing and grinding of typical terrestrial crust rocks in air, O2 and CO2 at atmospheric pressure, but not in helium or nitrogen. Ozone is formed by exoelectrons emitted by high electric fields, resulting from charge separation during fracture. The results suggest that ground level ozone produced by rock fracture, besides its potential health hazard, can be used for early warning in earthquakes and other catastrophes, such as landslides or land shifts in excavation tunnels and underground mines.
===============================================================
This isn’t a new idea though, a similar study was published in the Journal Remote Sensing (well before the editor resigned)
Variation in atmospheric ozone concentration following strong earthquakes
- DOI:
- 10.1080/01431160802282862
Abstract
The changes in atmospheric ozone concentration for earthquakes (with a magnitude greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale and a depth of focus less than 35 km), which have occurred worldwide during the period from September to March for the years 1991–2006, have been studied with the help of satellite data obtained from Nimbus‐7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), Earth probe TOMS and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The trend of variation in total ozone concentration after all these earthquakes was found to be similar. The ozone concentration was low on the day of the earthquake, increased gradually after the earthquake and reached a maximum value and thereafter decreased to its normal value. The increase in ozone concentration was found to be dependent on the magnitude of the quake, depth of focus, wind direction and geographical location of the epicentre.
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Interesting. I’m inclined against it, though.
For one thing, ozone would be a transient and occasional side-effect of rock stress, not nearly as reliable as (for example) directly sensing changes in the electrical field.
For another, ozone definitely signals an impending thunderstorm, and the animal response to quakes is different from their response to approaching storms. For a storm they try to get as low as possible, and for a quake they get the hell out of here.
I skipped the other responses because it is my bedtime, but this sounds to me like another money grab. “Hey, here is an interesting theory. Please give me a lot of money to research this for a few years.” Maybe we should send our kids to school so they can smell the difference between ozone and earthquake ozone. Better yet, we can install ozone sniffing stations around the world and panic people every time the planet shifts a little. Sigh!!!
I hate to sound all tin hattish or Art Bell’sh, but I’ve read some story’s and/or reports of something called earthquake clouds. Wikipedia says: “In modern times, a few scientists claim to have observed clouds associated with a seismic event, sometimes more than 50 days in advance of the earthquake. Some have even claimed to accurately predict earthquake occurrences by observing clouds.”
Could this discovery of leaking ozone and whatever interaction with the atmosphere create this? From the story above: “To distinguish whether the ozone was coming from the rocks or from reactions in the atmosphere, the researchers conducted experiments in pure oxygen, nitrogen, helium and carbon dioxide. They found that ozone was produced by fracturing rocks only in conditions containing oxygen atoms, such as air, carbon dioxide and pure oxygen molecules, indicating that it came from reactions in the gas. This suggests that rock fractures may be detectable by measuring ozone.”
So, if I am sounding all Mad Hatterish, I apologize, but this story got my mind whirring…
I feel that some people may be getting confused here.
Two papers are referenced above, the subject of this thread: Prof. Baragiola who wrote about measuring ozone from rocks by using sensors located on the surface of the earth, and a paper by GANGUL who utilised a spaced based sensors to measure ozone in the troposphere.
Baragiolas abstract does not refer to ozone levels increasing AFTER an earthquake, but GANGUL does.
It seems to me that a spaced base system measuring ozone above the earths surface would expect to measure a delayed release of ozone from a quake, and that ground based sensors <1metre may be able to measure any incipient earthquake gas release.
It must be worth a bit of research money.
Want to save a lot of money ? employee my dog
Volker Doorman, Harmonics are the foundation of the entire creation of the universe from the instantaneous creation of electrons in the vaccum, to their assembly into larger parts. The clouds of hydrogen produced make suns that produce the heavier elements, these elements are also harmonic in their creation. This leads to galaxies and solar systems, all harmonic, the music of the spheres are a fact, the harmonic scales are the universe. Thank you for your mathematics.
Anthony, I think that you may have a bad physics intuition, after all. I don’t know what exactly leads you to hype similar papers. This one is based on a misunderstanding how earthquakes originate and grow. The evolution of a larger quake depends on a largely unpredictable combination of noises that sometimes lead to higher responses in the system etc. There’s no reason why some ozone should know about these random tragic outcomes in advance.
“Anthony, I think that you may have a bad physics intuition, after all. I don’t know what exactly leads you to hype similar papers. This one is based on a misunderstanding how earthquakes originate and grow. The evolution of a larger quake depends on a largely unpredictable combination of noises that sometimes lead to higher responses in the system etc. There’s no reason why some ozone should know about these random tragic outcomes in advance.”
That does not make sense!
Ozone knowing?
What about rocks moving, creating ozone which then gets sensed?
I can see the calls now,………..”stop fracking drilling for shale gas! You are ruining our ozone detection system therefore it must be banned!” 🙂
Did you forget the /sarc tag?
The first time I heard that fish bite better as the barometer falls, I thought B.S.!! Water is nearly 1000 times as dense as air. There’s no way a fish under 5′ to 50′ of water can sense minute pressure changes in the air above it. It turns out they can and do (I’m still not sure how).
I’m keeping an open mind on this for now. We understand very little about earthquake phenomena. There may be something to this.
Atmospheric pressure has a large effect on tide heights, I suspect even fishes understand this 🙂
How much O2 is there in rocks that are thousands of feet beneath the surface?
How long does it take ozone creatred thousands of feet down to reach the surface?
Given the reactive nature of ozone, what are the odds that significant amounts of ozone would survive long enough to reach the surface?
@ur momisugly D. J. Hawkins November 17, 2011 at 3:32 pm
The approaches to earthquake prediction are mechanism-based and/or empirically-based.
The former will become problem of chaos, and the later will meet poor statistic results due to extremely low background probability (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320724.000-how-right-can-you-be.html). This is a common puzzle shared by earthquake prediction and global warming alarmism.
TomB says:
November 18, 2011 at 7:29 am
Volker Doormann says:
November 17, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Although there is no mechanism in sight, it is remarkable that Earth quakes occur in harmony with solar objects.
Did you forget the /sarc tag?
Try statistic.
Research on this possible connection is complicated, but there are remarkable geometric structures to find. I start this research in the 90s after the quake on the 17th January 1994:
http://www.volker-doormann.org/940117.gif
followed by the quake on 16th January 1995.
http://www.volker-doormann.org/kobe30.jpg
There were also a repetition of the geometry pattern of the xmas quake in 26th December 2004 on the 6th of January in 2006 on 06:45 UT. I was wrong with a prediction in June 2005 with 35 Minutes in time for that very date.
The prediction of a time is not so difficult as the location, or the local meridian, because of some (2, 3, 4 or 6) symmetry axis are given.
However, it cannot avoid the quakes, but maybe some death people.
V.
Volker Doormann says:
November 18, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Try statistic.
Correct link>
V.
More research needed.
Send money.
Amsel says:
November 18, 2011 at 2:03 pm
The approaches to earthquake prediction are mechanism-based and/or empirically-based.
Yes, that’s all the way in science.
The former will become problem of chaos, and the later will meet poor statistic results due to extremely low background probability (link).
No. The problem of chaos is a problem of the scientist, because chaos does not exist as an observable in physics. It does suggest that there are structures in nature which are true and at the same time untrue. But this is impossible. There is only one nature.
Empery must not mean statistic in general. To find out the ratio order of the Pythagorean harmonic tune scale it needs a living consciousness; it is not a food for the math tool statistic.
Same with quakes on the sun and on the Earth.
V.
Spector says:
Perhaps the best way to predict the exact time of an known impending earthquake would be to detonate a huge explosive charge right at the center of maximum strain and trigger the event at a time of our choice.
Assuming you didn’t trigger an earthquake by drilling the shaft(s) to place the charge(s).
You’d also want to ensure that the products of the explosion stayed underground. Unless someone can come up with a “clean” fusion bomb.
polistra says:
For another, ozone definitely signals an impending thunderstorm, and the animal response to quakes is different from their response to approaching storms. For a storm they try to get as low as possible, and for a quake they get the hell out of here.
For animals which stand with their feet apart there can be a risk of electrocution from a nearby lightening strike to the ground.
RE: Mark says: (November 19, 2011 at 7:32 am)
Sub: Explosive Triggered Impending Earthquakes
“Assuming you didn’t trigger an earthquake by drilling the shaft(s) to place the charge(s).You’d also want to ensure that the products of the explosion stayed underground. Unless someone can come up with a “clean” fusion bomb.”
It might not require a nuclear explosion. Perhaps a long tube of high explosive such as C-4 or Torpex detonated from the bottom up and shooting a stream of gas right into the fault boundary would be sufficient. Right now, I would expect legal liability issues to be the primary reason that no one is in any great rush to try any such experiment.
From the sequence of past Cascadia Subduction Earthquakes listed in the Wikipedia, I note the next one appears to be due within about 50 years of 2170.
Raúl A. Baragiola says:
“Such an array, located away from areas with high levels of ground ozone, could be useful for giving early warning to earthquakes.”
Dr. Nandita D. Ganguly: “The observed increase in ozone concentration following earthquakes is due to dynamical disturbances and transport processes.”
http://iccsir.org/images/Dr._Nandita_Presentation.pdf p. 39
V.
Volker Doormann says:
November 19, 2011 at 1:44 am
… Same with quakes on the sun and on the Earth.
Maybe of interest for solar quakes here.
The profile of solar protons on major events like on 23. February 1956, 03:33 UT is different to the galactic cosmic ray profile:
http://www.nss.org/settlement/nasa/75SummerStudy/figure2.6.gif
Remarkable are the planetary alignments of simple integer ‘harmonic’ divisions of the 2Pi ecliptic circle:
http://www.volker-doormann.org/images/polar_1956.gif
http://www.volker-doormann.org/images/polar_1997.gif
This was of interest in the 40s and 50s by J. H. Nelson from RCA:
http://www.volker-doormann.org/nelson1.htm
Thanks.
V.
RE: Volker Doormann: (November 19, 2011 at 9:35 am)
“Dr. Nandita D. Ganguly: “The observed increase in ozone concentration following earthquakes is due to dynamical disturbances and transport processes.””
If elevated ozone levels before a major earthquake were caused by an initial chain of foreshocks, I would think that acoustic and seismic indicators would be more sensitive. If previously absorbed ozone was being forced out due to high tensile stresses developing in the rocks just before an ultimate failure, then this might be a more predictive indication.
RE Spector: (November 20, 2011 at 2:02 pm)
“If previously absorbed ozone was being forced out due to high tensile stresses developing in the rocks just before an ultimate failure, then this might be a more predictive indication.”
Of course, any previously absorbed ozone would tend to have a rather short lifetime, so we must presume a silent ozone generation or regeneration process in the rock due to the high stresses building up just before fracture for this to be a preferred detection method.