Tiny changes in Earth’s gravitational field could help predict tsunami’s size

Hideo Kurihara/Alamy Stock Photo

For several years now, the APC Virgo Group has been involved in studying the possible synergies between geophysics and terrestrial gravitational wave detectors. Geophysical phenomena cause disturbances of “Newtonian” gravity. If these are not gravitational waves, common interests, especially on measurement techniques, bring the two communities closer together.

The studies published in Nature Communications in 2016 (Montagner et al.) And in Science (Vallée et al.) have their origin in a project of APC and IPGP  collaboration with researchers in the US and in Italy, within the framework of the Labex UnivEarthS. The APC and the IPGP are also collaborating in the framework of the ANR project “E-GRAAL” (Earthquake GRavity Alerts), which aims to study the feasibility of an early warning system for earthquakes based on these signals of gravity.

Read Science’s new : Tiny changes in Earth’s gravitational field could help predict tsunami’s size

Read CNRS press release (French): De nouveaux signaux précoces pour quantifier la magnitude des forts séismes

References:

Observations and modeling of the elastogravity signals preceding direct seismic waves. Martin Vallée, Jean Paul Ampuero, Kévin Juhel, Pascal Bernard, Jean-Paul Montagner, Matteo Barsuglia. Le 1 décembre 2017, Science, DOI : 10.1126/science.aao0746

Contacts :

Researchers IPGP | Martin Vallée | T 06 01 82 45 30 | vallee@ipgp.fr

Press CNRS |Anaïs Culot | T 01 44 96 43 09 | anais.culot@cnrs.fr