Unusual swarm earthquake in the Vogtland region: GFZ

summary

Since March 20, a unique, newly completed network of particularly sensitive seismometers has recorded an unusual seismic swarm in the Vogtland region near Klingenthal, on the border between the Czech Republic and Germany, for the first time since 1962. Days ago, The new measuring stations have already recorded thousands of earthquakes with a magnitude between 0 and 2.6 at a depth of eight to ten kilometres. This provides unique data to analyze the causes of earthquake swarms in the Vogtland region. The new type of earthquake monitoring network consists of five wells up to 400 meters deep, which are equipped with particularly sensitive seismometers. It was created as part of the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) project by an international scientific consortium led by the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ.

Earthquake swarm in Vogtland

“The current earthquake swarm is unusual in several respects, not only because it has already lasted more than 14 days, but also because it is the first swarm in the most active area around Novi Kostel to occur so far north and partly affecting German territory. “It's not just a swarm,” says Torsten Dehm, Head of the GFZ Department. “Physics of Earthquakes and Volcanoes” and professor of geophysics at the University of Potsdam, who is leading the project on behalf of the GFZ, “The shape of the earthquake swarm at a depth of about 10 kilometers is also unusual, with earthquakes activating a horizontal circular structure for the first time. “We've never seen a pattern like this in Vogtland before,” says Dahm, who is now working with colleagues to further analyze these earthquakes.

Swarm earthquakes are a series of a large number of earthquakes of similar magnitude that occur in certain areas over several days, weeks, or months. They occur all over the world, especially in volcanically active areas. Therefore, it is assumed that they are caused by underground fluid movements.

The Saxon region between Bad Brambach, Plauen and Uelsnitz is regularly affected by earthquake swarms associated with magmatic processes in the Earth's mantle and crust. The current swarm near Klingenthal is located to the north of the most active swarm earthquake zone in the area near Novi Kostel in the Czech Republic, which has expanded to the south and north in recent years. So the length of this area is actually more than 15 kilometers.

“The phenomena in this region are of worldwide scientific interest, as Vogtland is a rare example for studying the formation of magmatic volcanic processes and earthquake swarms in the Earth's crust far beyond tectonic plate boundaries,” explains Dahm. However, phenomena and processes generate only weak signals and are difficult to measure, which is why there are special requirements for the monitoring network.

New “ICDP-Eger” infrastructure for permanent surveillance in Vogtland and Bohemia

For this reason, an international scientific consortium was established in 2015 led by the GFZ to improve the sensitivity of seismic monitoring networks and establish a permanent monitoring program for the region. In addition to other institutions from Germany, such as the Universities of Potsdam and Leipzig, the University of Prague and the Academy of Sciences from the Czech Republic are also represented, as are partners from Aarhus University (Denmark) and the US Geological Survey (USA). The ICDP project “Excavation of the Eiger Fault: Magmatic fluids driving earthquake swarms and the deep biosphere” was approved in 2016.

Planning, approval and implementation took many years, with 25 percent of operational costs provided by the ICDP programme, coordinated by a team of scientists, technicians and engineers at GFZ. The remaining 75% was co-financed by other donors (including DFG's ICDP Priorities Programme).

Installing the monitoring network: drilling and equipping with measuring devices and special seismic devices

Various wells are planned in the project application, whether for fluid analysis or seismic monitoring.

The so-called muffet drilling (F3) began in August 2019 and reached a depth of 239 metres. The Movit Nord HartoušovCO2 is located in the Eger Basin in the Czech Republic, about 10 km east of Bad Brambach. Movites are natural escape channels for carbon dioxide from the Earth's interior. “The drilling was difficult because it was the first time such a deep hole had been drilled in an active carbon dioxide mouvet under overpressure,” explains Heiko Weeth, a scientist at the Department of “Earthquake and Volcano Physics” at the GFZ, who coordinated the fluid drilling. . Drilling and casing were successfully completed in September 2019.

The well, along with two previous monitoring sites, forms a unique fluid observatory of three adjacent shallow wells within an active CO2 vent to continuously record fluid composition, isotopic signature (δ13CCO2, δ18OCO2) and fluid flows at depths ranging from 30 to 229 metres. Following COVID-related delays, most of the required sensing/collection systems have now been installed and ongoing monitoring is underway. Data streams have been available to the consortium since the fall of 2020. In addition, drill samples have been collected over the entire drilling depth and are currently being analyzed by the microbiology teams at the GFZ.

Unique seismic antenna

Wells S1 to S4 have seismometers down to 400 metres. Instrumentation includes 8- or 10-element high-frequency geophone strings and broadband sensors at the bottom of the wells.

The well at Landwüst (S1) has also been supplemented with a network of 15 highly sensitive surface stations with a diameter of approximately 400 metres. “This is a world-unique configuration of a 3D seismic antenna in the middle of a dense seismic zone,” says Matthias Orenberger, a scientist at the University of Potsdam, who designed the geometry of the 3D array. “With this configuration, we can now try new ways to investigate very small earthquakes.”

The wells at Studenec (S3), Tisova/Klingenthal (S2), and Liba (S4) could be equipped with seismic sensors in autumn 2023 and April 2024.

The data is available to the scientific community via the GEOFON data portal and others

Continuous high-frequency data (sampling rate 400 or 1000 Hz) from the four seismic wells are collected together in the GEOFON data portal at the GFZ and are also sent to the University of Potsdam and the Seismological Services of Saxony, which are involved in the research project. It is freely available to the scientific community along with data from surrounding seismic networks (EGER Virtual Network, doi:10.14470/SN852091). “This is the first time that data from the Eger ICDP well network has been made fully available,” says Torsten Dahm.

New scientific opportunities thanks to the ICDP-Eger well network

In 2024, two third-party funded projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) will be launched at the GFZ and the University of Potsdam to improve the assessment of seismic activity in the entire region, which will also include past measurement data. “We apply a specially developed detection algorithm to new digital data that works with machine learning and artificial intelligence concepts,” says junior scientist Pınar Büyükçakpınar from the Department of “Earthquake and Volcano Physics” at GFZ, who took over one of the projects herself. . “This allows us to identify a larger number of earthquakes than previous methods, and, importantly, we can also see small earthquakes in places where only a few earthquakes have been measured previously.”

Scientific publications related to the project:

Dahm, T., Hrubcová, P., Fischer, T., Horálek, J., Korn, M., Buske, S., Wagner, D. (2013): Eger Rift ICDP: an observatory for the study of non-volcanic materials, earthquake swarms The middle of the Earth's crust and its accompanying phenomena. – Scientific Drilling: Reports on Deep Earth Sampling and Monitoring, 16, 93-99 https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-16-93-2013

Fischer, T., Hrobková, P., Dahm, T., Woith, H., Vylita, T., Ohrnberger, M., Vlček, J., Horálek, J., Dědeček, P., Zimmer, M., Lipus, M. P., Pierdominici, S., Kallmeyer, J., Krüger, F., Hannemann, K., Korn, M., Kämpf, H., Reinsch, T., Klicpera, J., Vollmer, D. & Daskalopoulou , K., 2022. ICDP Drilling of the Eger Rift Observatory: Magmatic Fluids Driving Earthquake Swarms and the Deep Biosphere, Sci. Drill., 31, 31-49, doi: 10.5194/sd-31-31-2022https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-31-31-2022

Woith, H., Daskalopoulou, K., Zimmer, M., Fischer, T., Vlček, J., Trubač, J., Rosberg, J.-E., Vylita, T. & Dahm, T., 2020. Multiscale gas monitoring: a new approach in earthquake research, Frontiers in Earth Sciences, 8, 585733, doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.585733https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.585733

Woith, H., Vlček, J., Vylita, T., Dahm, T., Fischer, T., Daskalopoulou, K., Zimmer, M., Niedermann, S., Stammeier, J. A., Turjaková, V. & Lanzendörfer , M., 2022. The effect of pressure perturbations on CO2 degassing in the Moffett system: the case of Hartuchov, Czech Republic, Geosciences, 13, doi: 10.3390/geosciences13010002https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13010002

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/press/news/details/neues-sensornetzwerk-registriert-ungewoehnliches-schwarmbeben-im-vogtland The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos