Abstract
We study the changes in the rate of seismotectonic strains in the Earth’s crust in two of the most seismically active Central Asian areas, the Garm region in Tadjikistan and the Northern Tien Shan, which are excited by high energy pulsed electromagnetic irradiation. It is shown that in both areas the average rates of strain release increase by a factor of 10–20. The increment of the seismotectonic strains initiated during the entire period of electromagnetic treatment is 1.3 × 10−6–6.3 × 10−6, which is comparable with the value of crustal strains observed during the preparation of strong earthquakes and amounts to 3–13% of the ultimate strains for rocks. Such a contribution to the process of quasi-plastic strains of the crust results in the additional relaxation of elastic stresses by 0.4–1.67 bar, which corresponds to approximately 1–17% of the stress released in the sources of strong earthquakes. The spatial variations in the changes of the strain rate during electromagnetic treatment are studied, and their correlation with the level of stresses in the Earth’s crust is revealed. It is shown that the change in the strain rate during the electromagnetic excitation can be used as the criterion for active monitoring of the stress state of the medium for the purposes of predicting the location, time, and magnitude of strong earthquakes.
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Original Russian Text © N.T. Tarasov, N.V. Tarasova, 2011, published in Fizika Zemli, 2011, No. 10, pp. 82–96.
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Tarasov, N.T., Tarasova, N.V. Influence of electromagnetic fields on the seismotectonic strain rate; relaxation and active monitoring of elastic stresses. Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 47, 937–950 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351311100120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351311100120