Monitoring of the geomagnetic and geoelectric field in two regions of Greece for the detection of earthquake precursors

Abstract

Two magnetotelluric stations have been installed in the South-Eastern Thessaly basin (Central Greece), which have recorded the geomagnetic and geoelectric fields since 1993. The aim is to detect long lasting abnormal changes of the geoelectric field which may be due to impending earthquakes. The geoelectric recordings were checked against the climatic changes such as temperature changes and precipitation and no correlation was observed. Ten anomalies were observed with characteristics similar to seismoelectric signals which have been reported in the literature and thus we can assume that these changes constitute precursory phenomena. The duration of these signals varies from several days to a few weeks. Some of them keep on developing until the occurrence of an earthquake, and others appear like transient changes several days before. The high seismicity of the area where the stations are located creates difficulties in the correlation of the signals with certain shocks.