Detection of a half-microgal coseismic gravity change after the Ms7. 0 Lushan earthquake

Because only a small near-field coseismie gravity change signal remains after removal of noise from the accuracy of observations and the time and spatial resolution of the earth＇s surface gravity observation system, it is difficult to verify simulations of dislocation theory. In this study, it is shown that the GS15 gravimeter, located 99.5 km from the epicenter of the Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake on April 20, 2013 at 08 ： 04 UTC ＋ 8, showed the influence of the earthquake from 2013-04-16 to 2013-04-26 after a time calibration, tide correc- tions, drift correction, period correction and relaxation correction were applied to its data. The post-seismic relaxation process of the spring in the gravimeter took approximately 430 minutes and showed a 2. 5 ×10^-8 ms^-2 gravity change. After correcting for the relaxation process, it is shown that a coseismic gravity change of approximately ＋0.59 ＋-0. 4 ~ 10-Sms-2 was observed by the GS15 gravimeter; this agrees with the simulated gravity change of approximately 0.31 ~ 10 -8 ms-2. The rate of the coseismie gravity change and the coseismic vertical displacement, as measured by one-second and one-day sampling interval GPS units, is also consistent with the theoretical rate of change. Therefore, the GS15 gravimeter at the Pixian Station observed a coseismic gravity change after the Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake. This and similar measurements could be applied to test and confirm the theory used for these simulations.

Far-field coseismic gravity changes related to the 2015 MW7.8 Nepal(Gorkha)earthquake observed by superconducting gravimeters in Chinese mainland

Using data from five SGs at four stations in Chinese mainland,obvious permanent gravity changes caused by the 2015 MW7.8 Nepal(Gorkha)earthquake were detected.We analyzed the gravity effects from ground vertical deformation(VD)using co-site continuous GPS(cGPS)data collocated at the Lijiang and the Wuhan station,and hydrological effects using GLDAS models and groundwater level records.After removing these effects,SG observations before and after the earthquake revealed obvious permanent gravity changes:−3.0μGal,7.3μGal and 8.0μGal at Lhasa,Lijiang and Wuhan station,respectively.We found that the gravity changes cannot be explained by the results of dislocation theory.

GRACE detection of the medium-to far-field coseismic gravity changes caused by the 2004 Mw9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake

Large earthquakes cause observable changes in the Earth’s gravity field, which have been detected by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Since most previous studies focus on the detection of near-field gravity effects, this study provides the results from the medium- to far-field gravity changes caused by the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake that are recorded within GRACE monthly solutions. Utilizing a spherical-earth dislocation model we documented that large-scale signals predominate in the global field of the coseismic gravity changes caused by the earthquake. After removing the near-field effects, the coseismic gravity changes show a negative anomaly feature with an average magnitude of -0.18×10-8 m·s-2 in the region ranging ～40° from the epicenter, which is considered as the 'medium ffield' in this study. From the GRACE data released by Center for Space Research from August 2002 to December 2008, we retrieved the large-scale gravity changes smoothed with 3 000 km Gaussian ffilter. The results show that the coseismic gravity changes detected by GRACE in the medium field have an average of (-0.20±0.06)×10-8 m·s-2, which agrees with the model prediction. The detection confirms that GRACE is sensitive to large-scale medium-field coseismic gravitational effects of mega earthquakes, and also validates the spherical-earth dislocation model in the medium field from the perspective of satellite gravimetry.

Coseismic gravity and displacement changes of Japan Tohoku earthquake(Mw 9.0)

The greatest earthquake in the modern history of Japan and probably the fourth greatest in the last 100 years in the world occurred on March 11, 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku.Large tsunami and ground motions caused severe damage in wide areas, particularly many towns along the Pacific coast. So far, gravity change caused by such a great earthquake has been reported for the 1964 Alaska and the 2010 Maule events. However, the spatial-temporal resolution of the gravity data for these cases is insufficient to depict a co-seismic gravity field variation in a spatial scale of a plate subduction zone. Here, we report an unequivocal co-seismic gravity change over the Japanese Island, obtained from a hybrid gravity observation（combined absolute and relative gravity measurements）. The time interval of the observation before and after the earthquake is within 1 year at almost all the observed sites, including 13 absolute and 16 relative measurement sites, which deduced tectonic and environmental contributions to the gravity change. The observed gravity agrees well with the result calculated by a dislocation theory based on a self-gravitating and layered spherical earth model. In this computation, a co-seismic slip distribution is determined by an inversion of Global Positioning System（GPS） data. Of particular interest is that the observed gravity change in some area is negative where a remarkable subsidence is observed by GPS, which can not be explained by simple vertical movement of the crust. This indicated that the mass redistribution in the underground affects the gravity change. This result supports the result that Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） satellites detected a crustal dilatation due to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake by the terrestrial observation with a higher spatial and temporal resolution.