Precursory Behavior of Groundwater Radon in Southeastern Taiwan: Effect of Tectonic Setting in the Subduction Zone

T. Kuo, W. Chen, C. Lewis, C. Ho, H. Kuochen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Monitoring precursory decline in groundwater radon at the Antung hot spring is a useful means of forecasting the magnitude and precursor time of local disastrous earthquakes. With the help of a case study in southeastern Taiwan, this paper demonstrates the effect of tectonic setting in the subduction zone on the correlation between radon decline, precursory time and earthquake magnitude. Given a radon-monitoring site located near the plate boundary in the tectonic setting of advanced arc-continental collision, the observed radon decline and precursory time prior to the earthquakes in the tectonic setting of initial arc-continental collision are smaller than those observed prior to the earthquakes occurring on the plate boundary in the tectonic setting of advanced arc-continental collision. In the advanced arc-continental collision state, the coupling between the plates is strong and the stress transfer is efficient, whereas in the incipient collision state, the coupling and stress transfer are not as good. It also takes additional time lag and attenuation for the stress transfer from one tectonic setting to the other. This paper presents the difference in the precursory behavior of groundwater radon between earthquakes which occurred in two different tectonic settings: advanced and initial arc-continental collision.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2877-2887
Number of pages11
JournalPure and Applied Geophysics
Volume177
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2020

Keywords

  • Radon
  • earthquakes
  • groundwater
  • subduction
  • tectonic setting

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Precursory Behavior of Groundwater Radon in Southeastern Taiwan: Effect of Tectonic Setting in the Subduction Zone'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this