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Phoenix666 writes:

Japanese researchers have revealed a relationship between helium levels in groundwater and the amount of stress exerted on inner rock layers of the earth, found at locations near the epicenter of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Scientists hope the finding will lead to the development of a monitoring system that catches stress changes that could foreshadow a big earthquake.

Several studies, including some on the massive earthquake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995, have indicated that changes to the chemical makeup of groundwater may occur prior to earthquakes. However, researchers still needed to accumulate evidence to link the occurrence of earthquakes to such chemical changes before establishing a strong correlation between the two.

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators found that when stress exerted on the earth's crust was high, the levels of a helium isotope, helium-4, released in the groundwater was also high at sites near the epicenter of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, a magnitude 7.3 quake in southwestern Japan, which caused 50 fatalities and serious damage.

The team used a submersible pump in deep wells to obtain groundwater samples at depths of 280 to 1,300 meters from seven locations in the fault zones surrounding the epicenter 11 days after the earthquake in April 2016. They compared the changes of helium-4 levels from chemical analyses of these samples with those from identical analyses performed in 2010.

Earthquake prediction is a scientific field frought with risks as both false negatives and false positives can get you in trouble. The researchers' paper is openly available. Radon detection isn't proving to be particularly reliable currently - can helium take its place? Even if it's only relevant to a particular region of the ring of fire, it would have the potential to save lives.

If the groundwater sounds like Mickey Mouse, an earthquake is around the corner.

Original Submission