Uranium groundwater anomalies and L'Aquila earthquake, 6th April 2009 (Italy).
Monitoring of chemical and physical groundwater parameters has been carried out worldwide in seismogenic areas with the aim to test possible correlations between their spatial and temporal variations and strain processes. Uranium (U) groundwater anomalies were observed during the preparation phases of the recent L'Aquila earthquake of 6th April 2009 in the cataclastic rocks near the overthrust fault crossing the deep underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory. The results suggest that U may be used as a potential strain indicator of geodynamic processes occurring before the seismic swarm and the main earthquake shock. Moreover, this justifies the different radon patterns before and after the main shock: the radon releases during and after the earthquake are much than more during the preparatory period because the process does not include only the microfracturing induced by stress-strain activation, but also radon increases accompanying groundwater U anomalies.
Plastino
Wolfango
W
Department of Physics, University of Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale, 84, I-00146 Rome, Italy. plastino@fis.uniroma3.it
Povinec
Pavel P
PP
De Luca
Gaetano
G
Doglioni
Carlo
C
Nisi
Stefano
S
Ioannucci
Luca
L
Balata
Marco
M
Laubenstein
Matthias
M
Bella
Francesco
F
Coccia
Eugenio
E
D055866:Earthquakes; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D007558:Italy; D007700:Kinetics; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis; D014501:Uranium / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014501:Uranium; D011886:Radon