Geomagnetic diurnal-variation anomalies and their relation to strong earthquakes

The diurnal-variation anomalies of the vertical-component in geomagnetic field are mainly the changes of phase and amplitude before strong earthquakes. On the basis of data recorded by the network of geomagnetic observatories in China for many years, the anomalous features of appearance time of the minima of diurnal variations (i.e, low-point time) of the geomagnetic vertical components and the variation of their spatial distribution (i.e, phenomena of low-point displacement) have been studied before over 30 strong earthquakes with M ^sub S^≥6.6 such as Kunlunshan M ^sub S^=8.1 earthquake on November 14, 2001; Bachu-Jashi M ^sub S^=6.8 earthquake on February 24, 2003; Xiaojin M ^sub S^=6.6 earthquake on September 22, 1989, etc. There are good relations between such rare phenomena of geomagnetic anomalies and the occurrence of earthquakes. It has been found that most earthquakes occur in the vicinity of the boundary line of sudden change of the low-point displacement and generally within four days before and after the 27th or 41st day counting from the day of appearance of the anomaly. In addition, the anomalies of diurnal-variation amplitude near the epicentral area have been also studied before Kunlunshan M ^sub S^=8.1 earthquake and Bachu-Jiashi M ^sub S^=6.8 earthquake.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]