Groundwater-strain coupling before the 1999 Mw 7.6 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake

Chieh Hung Chen, Chi Chia Tang, Kai Chien Cheng, Chung Ho Wang, Strong Wen, Cheng Horng Lin, Yi Ying Wen, Guojie Meng, Ta Kang Yeh, Jyh Cherng Jan, Horng Yuan Yen, Jann Yenq Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

The coupling of pre-earthquake anomalous phenomena between long-term groundwater levels recorded at 42 monitoring stations and time-varying surface strain derived from 16 GPS stations was found in the Choshuichi Alluvial Fan before the 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan. The noise-free groundwater-level anomalies consistently comprised by a sequence of decrease, rise and flat phases, which agree very well with changes in strain rates computed from the GPS stations. These coupling agreements show that in addition to compression, tension can be generated before a thrust earthquake occurrence as well. This case demonstrates that short-term surface deformation as signals against noise and accuracy of pre-earthquake anomalous phenomena can be simultaneously examined by using multiple-parameter crosscheck for significantly reducing the uncertainty of earthquake precursory evaluation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)378-384
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Hydrology
Volume524
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2015

Keywords

  • Global Positioning System
  • Groundwater level
  • Groundwater-strain coupling
  • Hydrological precursor
  • The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake

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