Chinese scientists develop monitoring system to forecast seismic activities

A team of researchers from more than 10 Chinese institutions has recently developed a system for monitoring vibrations and perturbations in the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere (MVP-LAI) to help forecast seismic activities.

The monitoring system can simultaneously monitor nearly 20 physical quantities such as ground vibration, air pressure and ionospheric electron concentration in a single observation station, said Chen Jiehong, a member of the research team.

The MVP-LAI system has 14 kinds of observation equipment, said Chen, who is also a professor at the Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).

The observation station is located in the suburb of the southwestern Chinese city of Leshan, and its surrounding geological activities are active, which is beneficial to the study of geophysics, earthquakes and geological disasters, Chen added.

The system is expected to provide a necessary condition for the study of international scientific problems, such as the mechanism of temporal and spatial variation of the geomagnetic field and the mechanism of crustal activity before earthquakes.