The EM fields in the Solid Generated by a Fault in a Porous Region

Abstract:

Electrokinetic effect, as one of the most possible generation mechanisms of the seismo-electromagnetic phenomenons associated with natural earthquakes, has interested many researchers. Besides, it is also considered as a potential tool for the water/oil exploration. Recently, we numerically investigated the electromagnetic (EM) fields due to the electrokinetic effect in mixed layered model. The mixed model comprises not only porous layers but also solid layers. We firstly tested a two-layer mixed model. The numerical results show that, in addition to the radiation EM fields, another kind of evanescent EM fields can be generated by the seismic waves arriving at the interface with incident angles greater the critical angle. The evanescent EM fields decay faster than the radiation EM fields when getting away from the interface. For the seismic frequency band, the evanescent EM fields in the solid are still measurable at a distance of, e.g., 2km to the interface. We then tested a eight-layer mixed model. The top and bottom layers are solid and the other layers are porous. A finite fault of 20x10km is located in the porous region. The focal depth is 8km. The applied source time function is a ramp fuction with an arise time of 0.8s. Point stacking method was used to compute the wave-fields caused by the finite fault. Our nuemrical results show that, this model can generate the EM fields before the arrival of seismic waves as well as the residual EM fields. Both the two kinds of EM fields have been observed in field observations. There is a possibility that the anomalous EM activities before big earthquakes may be caused by the fluid flow in the shallow Earth as a result of the stress changes.