The Correlations between the Lightning Density Distribution of Sichuan Province and the Seismic Area

Abstract

We here report our observations of the intense lightning events during ~15:00, 23 September to ~12:00, 24 September 2008 along the fault of Wenchuan-Beichuan counties in Sichuan Province, China where a 8.0 magnitude earthquake strike on May 12th, 2008. This intense lightning period had the highest density in all available the lightning monitoring data of Sichuan. The altered lightning pattern is unlikely to be a coincidence. We also found that the spatial-temporal characteristic of lightning in Sichuan has changed after the earthquake. We studied the correlations and analyze the data between lightning and earthquake in order to understand the seemingly unrelated events.

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X. Jin, Z. Chen, Q. Ma, Y. Li and J. Pu, "The Correlations between the Lightning Density Distribution of Sichuan Province and the Seismic Area," International Journal of Geosciences, Vol. 4 No. 2, 2013, pp. 380-386. doi: 10.4236/ijg.2013.42036.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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