A Study of Ionospheric Precursors due to Earthquakes in Africa

Abstract

Precursors due earthquake have been studied in the history; whence, scientists were striving for finding an effective way to forecast earthquakes. When looking at the physics scientists formulated scenario of earthquakes and the system of atmosphere, accordingly, they found some obvious precursors in the ionosphere due earthquakes. In this research we selected data of earthquakes in magnitude range (5.5 to 8.0) (Mwc - Mwb) in Africa continent. And the selected data are collected from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in period ranged from 1990 to 2010. These data were used to review the seismic activity in the region. Further; two events from these data have been selected and checked for ionospheric anomalies. A precursor test was carried out via using the ionospheric critical frequency data in the F2 layers, i.e. the (foF2) data; the foF2 data were taken from Grhamstown station (longitude=-33.30, latitude=26.50) in South Africa. These data were used in the anomalies analyses for two events: the event of magnitude (6.4 mwc) in 2003 at Prince Edward Island epicenter (longitude=-46.048, latitude=35.057) and the event of magnitude (7.0 mwb) in 2006 at Mozambique (longitude=-21.324, latitude=33.583) epicenter. Analyses results showed anomalies for both earthquakes events. These anomalies were further confirmed when compared with geomagnetic indices Dst, Kp.