An earthquake from space: detection of precursory magnetic anomalies from Swarm satellites before the 2015 M8 Nepal Earthquake

Abstract:

A large earthquake of around 8 magnitude occurred on 25 April 2015, 06:26 UTC, with epicenter in Nepal, causing more than 9000 fatalities and devastating destruction. The contemporary orbiting in the topside ionosphere of the three Swarm satellites by ESA makes it possible to look for possible pre-earthquake magnetic anomalous signals, likely due to some lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere (LAI) coupling. First, a wavelet analysis has been performed during the same day of the earthquake (from the external magnetic point of view, an exceptionally quiet day) with the result that a ULF anomalous and persisting signal (from around 3 to 6 UTC), is clearly detected before the earthquake. After this single-spot analysis, we performed a more extensive analysis for two months around the earthquake occurrence, to confirm or refute the cause-effect relationship. From the series of the detected magnetic anomalies (during night and magnetically quiet times) from Swarm satellites, we show that the cumulative numbers of anomalies follows the same typical power-law behavior of a critical system approaching its critical time, in our case, the large seismic event of 25 April, 2015, and then it recovers as the typical recovery phase after a large earthquake. The impressive similarity of this behavior with the analogous of seismic data analysis, provides strong support to the lithospheric origin of the satellite magnetic anomalies, as due to the LAI coupling during the preparation phase of the Nepal earthquake.