Disturbances in the geomagnetic field, water level and atmospheric pressure associated with Mw ≥ 6.6 earthquakes in the South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

This paper is aimed at studying disturbances in the earth’s geomagnetic field (GMF), water level (WL) and sea-level atmospheric pressure (AP) associated with M_w≥ 6.6 seismic events in the in the Scotia arch, in the South Atlantic. GMF records from observatories of the International Magnetic Observatory Network (INTERMAGNET), WL records from tide stations of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and hourly AP records from databases of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have been analyzed in the area under study. For the analysis of geomagnetic disturbances, the GMF horizontal component (H), which is more susceptible to variations, was considered. For the WL analysis, the discrepancy (residue) between the WL time series from tide stations and the predicted level of astronomical tides, for a 10-day period before and after the occurrence of each earthquake, was calculated. For the AP analysis, the variation of data gridded between 1 and 2 hours before and after the earthquake was calculated. The analysis of the geomagnetic data prior to the seismic event, using a high-pass filter and the wavelet method, showed: a) high energy ranges in all frequencies, even in very high ones; and b) oscillations in the filter with amplitude peaks of ± 0.2 nT, and with an anticipation and duration consistent with the wavelet method. As regards the WL residues calculated, there were oscillations in the largest amplitudes in the sensors located closest to the earthquake, thus, those large amplitudes corresponded to shorter times of arrival. The AP study showed a maximum followed by a local minimum within a range of ± 0.3 hPa around the location of the earthquake. While the GMF analysis anticipated seismic events within a range of 6-2 hours, the techniques used for WL and AP could detect M_w>7 earthquakes, associating them with the rising/falling surface of the sea. These three techniques can be used jointly to implement a prevention or early warning system for seismic events in the region under study.