Spectral-decomposition techniques for the identification of radon anomalies temporally associated with earthquakes occurring in the UK in 2002 and 2008

• Published in: Natural hazards and earth system sciences 2010-06, Vol.10 (6), p.1079-1084
• Main Authors: Crockett, R. G. M., Gillmore, G. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1684-9981; 1561-8633; 1684-9981
• DOI: 10.5194/nhess-10-1079-2010

During the second half of 2002, the University of Northampton Radon Research Group operated two continuous hourly-sampling radon detectors 2.25 km apart in the English East Midlands. This period included the Dudley earthquake (ML=5, 22 September 2002). Also, at various periods during 2008 the Group has operated other pairs of continuous hourly-sampling radon detectors similar distances apart in the same region. One such period included the Market Rasen earthquake (ML=5.2, 27 February 2008). Windowed cross-correlation of the paired time-series was used to identify simultaneous short-duration anomalies. In the 2002 data, only two periods of significant cross-correlation were observed, each corresponding temporally to a UK earthquake, one to the Dudley earthquake and the other to a smaller earthquake in the English Channel (ML=3, 26 August 2002). In the 2008 data, cross-correlation initially revealed little evidence of simultaneous short-duration anomalies but cross-correlation of data de-noised and de-trended using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) revealed clear simultaneous short-duration anomalies which correspond temporally to the Market Rasen earthquake.