Abstract
The results of the long-term recording of thermal neutron flux near the Earth’s surface with the use of an unshielded scintillation thermal-neutron detector are presented. The data obtained indicate the presence of periodic variations in the thermal neutron flux with the lunar diurnal and the lunar monthly periods. A hypothesis about the existence in the Earth’s crust of radon-neutron tidal variations in the concentration of thermal neutrons, correlated with the Moon’s phases and which have the gravitational origin, is formulated and confirmed experimentally. A simple mathematical model is proposed, which satisfactorily describes the observed variations. The case of the anomalous behavior of thermal neutrons is presented, which correlates with the high local seismic activity.
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Original Russian Text © V.V. Alekseenko, Yu.M. Gavrilyuk, D.M. Gromushkin, D.D. Dzhappuev, A.U. Kudzhaev, V.V. Kuzminov, O.I. Mikhailova, Yu.V. Stenkin, V.I. Stepanov, 2009, published in Fizika Zemli, 2009, No. 8, pp. 91–100.
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Alekseenko, V.V., Gavrilyuk, Y.M., Gromushkin, D.M. et al. Correlation of variations in the thermal neutron flux from the Earth’s crust with the Moon’s phases and with seismic activity. Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 45, 709–718 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351309080102
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351309080102