Respond Projects

Disaster Management Studies

Earthquake Precursor Analysis for moderate to high magnitude earthquakes in India for understanding the spatio-temporal likelihood of earthquakes

Earthquake prediction is still a challenging task, recent studies have shown that numerous geophysical and geochemical parameters are closely associated with earthquakes. When the earthquake happens, an energy transfer due to a breakdown between source and environment is made. These changes prior to the earthquake or along with it may have different physical and chemical effects on the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere. Occasionally and in the cases of large magnitude earthquakes, these changes are detectable. A large number of researchers across the world over the past decades have attempted in understanding such “earthquake precursors” from “Thermal Anomalies” and “Total Electron Count Variations” occurring in the lithosphere and the ionosphere. Thermal anomaly is an unusual increase in Land Surface Temperature (LST) that occurs around 1–24 days prior to an earthquake. In addition to this, Total Electron Content/Count (TEC) has emerged as one of prime candidates of earthquake pre-cursors studies that need to be thoroughly understood in order to get appropriate forewarning of earthquake events. Therefore, the two primary areas of focus will be “Thermal precursors” and “Total electron count anomaly” prior to an earthquake event.