A Verification of Seismo-Hydrogeodynamic Effect Typifications Recorded in Wells on the Kamchatka Peninsula: The 3 April 2023 Earthquake, Mw = 6.6, as an Example
Authors: Kopylova Galina , Boldina Svetlana 
Published: February 2025

Long-term observations in wells make it possible to study changes in groundwater pressure/level during individual earthquakes (seismo-hydrogeodynamic effects—SHGEs) over a wide range of periods of their manifestation. Information on the morphological features and durations of the SHGEs together with data on earthquake parameters form the basis for creating the unique typifications of SHGEs for individual observation wells. With reliable verification, such SHGE typifications provide the practical use of well observation data to predict strong earthquakes and assess their impact on groundwater. During long-term (1996–2022) precision observations of pressure/water level variations in wells of the Petropavlovsk–Kamchatsky test site (Kamchatka Peninsula, northwest Pacific seismic belt), SHGE typifications describing the manifestations of various types of SHGEs at the earthquakes in ranges of magnitudes Mw = 5.0–9.1 and epicentral distances de = 80–14,600 km were developed. At the same time, the issue of verifying created SHGE typifications for individual wells in relation to the strongest and closest earthquakes, accompanied by noticeable tremors in the observation area, is relevant. On 3 April 2023, an earthquake, Mw = 6.6 (EQ), occurred at an epicentral distance de = 67–77 km from observation wells. Various changes in the groundwater pressure/level were recorded in the wells: oscillations and other short-term and long-term effects of seismic waves, coseismic jumps in water pressure caused by a change in the static stress state of water-bearing rocks during the formation of rupture in the earthquake source, and supposed hydrogeodynamic precursors. The EQ was used to verify the SHGE typifications for wells YuZ-5 and E-1 with the longest observation series of more than 25 years. In these wells, the seismo-hydrogeodynamic effects recorded during the EQ corresponded to the previously observed SHGE during the two strongest earthquakes with Mw = 7.2, de = 80 km and Mw = 7.8, de = 200 km. This correspondence is considered an example of the experimental verification of previously created SHGE typifications in individual wells in relation to the most powerful earthquakes in the wells’ area. Updated SHGE typifications for wells E-1 and YuZ-5 are presented, showing the patterns of water level/pressure changes in these wells depending on earthquake parameters and thereby increasing the practical significance of well observations for assessing earthquake consequences for groundwater, searching for hydrogeodynamic precursors and forecasting strong earthquakes. The features of the hydrogeodynamic precursor manifesting in the water level/pressure lowering with increased rates in well E-1 before earthquakes with Mw ≥ 5.0 at epicentral distances of up to 360 km are considered. A retrospective statistical analysis of the prognostic significance of this precursor showed that its use for earthquake forecasting increases the efficiency of predicting earthquakes with Mw ≥ 5.0 by 1.55 times and efficiency of predicting earthquakes with Mw ≥ 5.8 by 2.34 times compared to random guessing. This precursor was recorded during the 92 days before the EQ and was identified in real time with the issuance of an early prognostic conclusion on the possibility of a strong earthquake to the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Expert Council for Earthquake Forecasting.