Gravity changes associated with variations in local land-water distributions: Observations and hydrological modeling at Isawa Fan, northern Japan

• Published in: Earth, planets, and space planets, and space, 2012-01, Vol.64 (4), p.309-331
• Main Authors: Kazama, Takahito, Tamura, Yoshiaki, Asari, Kazuyoshi, Manabe, Seiji, Okubo, Shuhei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cosmochemistry. Extraterrestrial geology; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Geology; Geophysics/Geodesy
• ISSN: 1343-8832; 1880-5981
• DOI: 10.5047/eps.2011.11.003

Gravity changes associated with variations in local land-water distributions have been observed at Isawa Fan in northern Japan, and modeled by hydrological equations. We solve the Richards equation numerically for the time variation in the vertical soil moisture distribution, which is then spatially integrated to estimate gravity changes due to the soil moisture distribution. In modeling Isawa Fan, we assume a simple hydrological model: a horizontally homogeneous soil in an infinite half-space. The estimated gravity is consistent with the observed gravity during a 50-day period within about 0.4 µgal root mean square, owing to both observed soil parameter values and the observation building geometry being incorporated into the hydrological model. However, the estimated gravity cannot fully reproduce annual gravity changes observed during a 2-year time frame, because the boundary conditions in the modeling determine only local water distributions and the resultant short-period gravity changes. Instead, the observed gravity over these 2 years can be reproduced within about 1.0 µgal root mean square, if the additional parameters of the annual gravity change ( A ac and A as ) and the snowfall effect ( A s ) are calculated by the function regression to the observed gravity with the least-squares method. The hydrological modeling techniques presented here can be utilized at all gravity sites in flat areas similar to Isawa Fan, such that hydrological effects in gravity data can be corrected and mass transfers associated with earthquakes and volcanoes can be monitored.