Abstract

The radon concentration in soil varies with environmental factors such as atmospheric temperature and pressure, rainfall and soil temperature. The effects of these factors, therefore, should be differentiate in order to analyzed the anomalous radon variation caused by earthquake events. For these reasons, a comparative analysis between the radon variations with environmental factors and the anomalous variations caused by Gyeong-ju earthquake occurred in September 12, 2016 has been conducted. Radon concentration in soil and environmental factors were continuously measured at a monitoring ste located in 58Km away from earthquake epicenter from January 01, 2014 to May 31, 2017. The co-relationships between radon concentration and environmental factors were analyzed. The seasonal average radon concentration(n) and the standard variation(ρ) was calculated, and the regions of ±1ρ and ±2ρ deviations from seasonal average concentration were investigated to find the anomalous radon variation related to Gyeong-ju earthquake. Earthquake effectiveness and q-factor were also calculated. The radon concentration indicated the seasonal variation pattern, showing high in summer and low in winter. It increases with increasing air temperature and soil temperature, and has the positive co-relationships of R²=0.9136 and R²=0.8496, respectively. The radon concentration decreases with increasing atmospheric pressure, and has the negative co-relationships of R²=0.7825. Four regions of ±2ρ deviation from average seasonal concentration (A1: 7/3~7/5, A2: 7/18, A3: 8/4~8/5, A4: 10/17~10/20) were detected before and after Gyeong-ju earthquake. A1, A2, A3 were determined as the anomalous radon variation caused by the earthquake from co-relationship analyses with environmental factors, earthquake effectiveness and q-factor. During the period of anomalous radon variation, correlation coefficients between radon concentration and environmental factors were significantly lowered compared to other periods such as air temperature (R²=0.2314), soil temperature (R²=0.1138) and atmospheric pressure (R²=0.0475). Annual average radon concentration was also highest at 2016, the year of Gyeong-ju earthquake.

Keywords earthquake, radon, soil, anomalous radon variation, earthquake precursory