Seasonal variations in soil radon emanation: long-term continuous monitoring in light of seismicity

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 575 - 591
• Main Authors: İnan, Sedat, Kop, Alican, Çetin, Hasan, Kulak, Furkan, Pabuçcu, Zümer, Seyis, Cemil, Ergintav, Semih, Tan, Onur, Saatçılar, Ruhi, Bodur, M. Nuri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Earthquakes; Emission; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental policy; Exact sciences and technology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Hydrologic data; Monitoring; Natural Hazards; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Natural resources; Original Paper; Radon; Rainfall; Seasonal variations; Seasons; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; Seismic phenomena; Seismology; Soil (material); Soil fertility; Soil gases; Soils; Turkey; Middle East; East Anatolian Fault; Turkey; Asia; East Mediterranean; Mediterranean Sea; Dead Sea; Earthquake precursor; East Anatolian Fault system; Continuous monitoring; Dead Sea Fault system; Soil radon; Semi-annual variations; Meteorological effects; Southern Turkey; East Mediterranean Province; radon; rainfall; precursors; baseline; earthquakes; anomalies; annual variations; correlation; soils; seasonal variations; seismicity
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-012-0096-6

Soil gas radon release patterns have been monitored continuously for more than 3 years in the Eastern Mediterranean Province (EMP) (Southern Turkey), alongside regional seismic events, providing a multidisciplinary approach. In the period from January 2008 to January 2011, 14 earthquakes M L ≥4 occurred in the study area. By monitoring the sites for more than 3 years, the site-characteristic patterns of soil radon emanation of each site have become evident. Radon emanation data show seasonal (semi-annual) variation characteristics; high soil radon values are between May and October and low soil radon values are between November and April. With available rainfall data, the soil gas radon data can be more reliably evaluated. It is shown in this paper that if radon emanation data are available over sufficiently long periods of time and baseline data (and their seasonal variations) are known with certainty for each monitoring site, then the observation of positive anomalies might provide a correlation or connection to seismic activity.