Is the earthquake near or far from you? Earthquakes can be made? What is earthquake warning? On May 12, 2023, on the occasion of the 15th National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day, the reporter visited the Seismological Bureau of Jiangsu Province to learn more about artificial sources, earthquake early warning and how to judge the distance of earthquakes.
Is the earthquake near or far from you?
Earthquake! How to "count by fingers" whether the earthquake is near or far from you?
During an earthquake, the distance from the epicenter to any point on the ground is called epicentral distance. An epicentre distance of 100-1000 km is a near earthquake, and a distance of more than 1000 km is a far earthquake. For example, the Wenchuan earthquake is a near earthquake for Chongqing, which is more than 300 km away. For Beijing, thousands of miles away, it is a distant earthquake.
The source will produce two kinds of seismic waves in underground rocks: longitudinal wave and shear wave. P-wave, also known as P-wave, is the first to reach the epicenter. Its propagation speed in the earth’s crust is about 6 km/s, which makes the ground vibrate up and down, and its damage is weak. Followed by shear wave, also known as S wave, the propagation speed in the earth’s crust is about 3.5 km/s, which makes the ground shake back and forth and left and right, which is more destructive.
Seismic waves can be recorded by seismographs. If the distance from the seismograph to the source is expressed as L, then the time to receive P wave can be expressed as L divided by the speed of P wave 6 kilometers per second, while the time to receive S wave is L divided by the speed of S wave 3.5 kilometers per second. The closer the difference obtained by subtracting the propagation time of the two waves, the closer the earthquake is; On the contrary, the farther away.
For the public, it is easier to judge by the sense of earthquake.
During an earthquake, we can count from the first time we feel shaking to the second time when we feel shaking stops, and count by the number of seconds. Suppose you count 20 seconds during this period, according to the formula of the time difference between longitudinal wave and shear wave, then the distance between the earthquake and you is about 160 kilometers!
In addition, when the P-wave and the S-wave propagate to 100 kilometers, they will gradually decay, overlap and interfere with each other, and then develop another wave-surface wave. It propagates along the surface of the earth, with slow energy attenuation and long propagation period, and sometimes it can even circle the earth several times. Because the surface wave period is similar to the natural period of high-rise buildings, people living in high-rise buildings will feel the sloshing is more obvious.
Don’t be afraid when the earthquake comes, the longitudinal wave and the transverse wave are sometimes different, so there is a way to count by pinching your fingers, and you know whether it is near or far!
Earthquakes can be made.
When it comes to earthquakes, many people will turn pale. However, apart from the disaster, we can also explore the interior of the earth through earthquakes: because seismic waves are the only waves that can penetrate deep into the earth.
However, due to the limited number of natural earthquakes, its location accuracy is not high, and the measurement of underground medium changes using natural sources is limited to some extent. Therefore, the use of artificial seismic sources to actively emit seismic waves into the ground has become the main means to monitor the changes of underground media.
In 1968, the air gun source was born. Its principle is to release high-pressure air in the water body, causing the vibration of the limited water body, and the huge water body knocks on the ground to excite the seismic wave that propagates outward.
However, air gun sources are widely used in the ocean and have never been used on land.
Since 1995, scientists have tested almost all artificial seismic sources that can generate seismic waves on land, including explosives, vibroseis, falling weights, train and subway vibrations, and found that they are not ideal artificial seismic sources.
In the 21st century, Chinese scientists began to try to introduce air gun sources into land detection, and developed the data processing technology of "micro-excitation", that is, the propagation distance of land bubble sources was greatly increased by superposition, thus further expanding the detection range.
Since 2006, China has built underwater air gun launchers in Urumqi, Xinjiang, Dali, Yunnan, Xiamen, Fujian, Qilian Mountain, Gansu and Baoji, Shaanxi. If more than a dozen air gun transmitting stations are set up in China to excite seismic waves, long-term continuous large-scale coverage exploration can be carried out in Chinese mainland, and regional large-scale structural exploration and seismic risk monitoring in tectonic active areas can be carried out.
However, when there is no suitable water body, the artificial source can also be an artificial air gun source made of compressed natural gas (methane). Its principle is that when methane and oxygen are mixed and ignited in a closed container, a detonation reaction can occur, and the high-pressure gas generated by detonation instantly releases the generated seismic wave. Its advantages are safety, environmental protection and high efficiency, and it can be used as a "small beacon" in high-precision shallow underground space exploration and development, and can be used in urban underground space development, site evaluation, seismic activity zone investigation, deep prospecting and so on.
The "bright light" has already risen, but the road is long and Xiu Yuan. In the future, scientists in China will continue to explore and write the research results of "There is a big dipper in the sky and a bright light in the ground" on the land of the motherland, slowly unveiling the mystery of the earth.
Aspects of earthquake early warning
How is earthquake early warning achieved?
There are two kinds of body waves during earthquakes: longitudinal waves and shear waves. Longitudinal waves run fast and have limited destructive power. Shear waves are slow and destructive.
After the earthquake, several early warning stations closest to the epicenter will receive p-wave seismic signals one after another, which will trigger the rapid judgment and measurement system of earthquake parameters, quickly measure the time, location, source type and magnitude of the earthquake, predict the intensity of ground movement in the relevant areas, and then use the principle that the speed of electromagnetic waves is much faster than that of seismic waves to send early warning information to different areas before the arrival of destructive shear waves.
The emergency time obtained by early warning can be used for escape and emergency treatment, effectively reducing casualties and disaster losses.
However, earthquake early warning also has shortcomings.
Because the information output depends on the limited recorded signals of observation stations near the epicenter, there are some limitations in earthquake early warning, such as early warning blind area, deviation and false alarm.
The early warning blind zone means that it takes a certain time for the station to receive the seismic wave and process the information. By the time the early warning information is sent out, the destructive seismic wave has spread for 20 to 30 kilometers. This makes it basically impossible to give an early warning within this radius, and it is precisely in this area that the ground movement is the strongest and the damage is the most serious.
Take the Wenchuan earthquake as an example, Yingxiu Town, which is less than 20 kilometers away from the epicenter, is in the early warning blind zone.
If there are few seismic stations in the epicenter and the recorded signals are incomplete, the early warning results may be biased. In practice, it is necessary to revise the results through continuous reporting.
When a seismic station is disturbed by non-seismic signals, it may also trigger an early warning system and issue an error message. In 2016, Japan misreported strong earthquakes due to lightning interference at individual seismic stations, resulting in short-term suspension of some rail transit.
Earthquake early warning is the most effective technical means to reduce disasters. With the implementation of the national earthquake intensity quick report and early warning project, the second-order earthquake early warning capability has been initially formed in some areas of China.
Xinhua Daily Meeting Point reporter Cheng Xiaolin