THE MECHANISM OF DIURNAL VARIATION IN CONSECUTIVE APPARENT RESISTIVITY OBSERVATION |
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| Authors: | XIE Tao LU Jun YAN Wei |
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| Institution: | China Earthquake Networks Center, CEA, Beijing 100045, China |
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| Abstract: | Parts of the consecutive apparent resistivity monitoring stations of China have recorded clear diurnal variations. The relative amplitudes of diurnal variations at these stations range from 1.3‰ to 5.8‰. The daily accuracies of apparent resistivity observation are better than 1‰, because the background electromagnetic noise is rather low at these stations. Therefore, the diurnal variations of apparent resistivity recorded at these stations are real phenomena. The diurnal variation shapes can be divided into two opposite types according to their characteristics. One type is that the apparent resistivity data decreases during the daytime but increases during the nighttime(Type 1). The other type is the apparent resistivity data increases during the daytime but decreases during the nighttime(Type 2). There is a correspondence between the diurnal and annual variation patterns of apparent resistivity. For the monitoring direction with diurnal variation of Type 1, the apparent resistivity decreases in summer and increases in winter. However, for the monitoring direction with diurnal variation of Type 2, the apparent resistivity increases in summer and decreases in winter.
We take an analysis on the mechanism of apparent resistivity diurnal variation, combining the influence factors of water-bearing medium's resistivity, the electric structure of stations, and the apparent resistivity sensitivity coefficient(SC)theory. Intuitively, diurnal variation of apparent resistivity is caused by diurnal variation of medium resistivity in the measured area. The diurnal variation of medium resistivity will inevitably be caused by the factors with diurnal variation. Among the possible factors, there is diural variation in earth tide and temperature.
Our analysis displays that apparent resistivity diurnal variation is not caused by the usually-believed earth tide, but by the ground temperature difference between daytime and nighttime. The earth tide strain is too small to cause remarkable effects on the apparent resistivity data. On the other hand, the daily tide strain has two peak-valley variations, and its phase and amplitude has a period of approximate 28 days. However, the apparent resistivity data do not show these corresponding features to earth tide. Furthermore, the detection range of current apparent resistivity stations is within a depth of several hundred meters. Within this depth range, the medium deformation caused by solid tide can be regarded as uniform change. Therefore, all monitoring directions and all stations will have the same pattern of diurnal variation.
In general, the temperature increases in the daytime but decreases in the nighttime. For most water-bearing rock and soil medium, its resistivity decreases as temperature increases and increases as temperature decreases. Diurnal temperature difference affects about 0.4m of soil depth. Therefore, resistivity of this surface thin soil layer decreases in the daytime while increases in the nighttime. Under layered medium model, SC of each layer represents its contribution to the apparent resistivity. For the stations with positive SC of surface layer, apparent resistivity decreases in the daytime but increases in the nighttime. While for the stations with negative SC of surface layer, apparent resistivity diurnal variations display the opposite shape. |
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| Keywords: | apparent resistivity diurnal variation mechanism temperature earth tide |
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