GNGTS 2013 - Atti del 32° Convegno Nazionale

Multiple Parameter Monitoring and seismic precursory phenomenology in unusual animal behaviour in Western Piedmont G. de Liso 1,2,3 , C. Fidani 1,4 , A. Viotto 1 1 Seismic Precursors Study Center (SPSC), Associazione Culturale “Le Nuove Muse”, Torre Pellice, Italy 2 Istituto di Alta formazione artistica e musicale “G.F. Ghedini”, Cuneo Italy 3 Voce Pinerolese, Pinerolo, Italy 4 Central Italy Electromagnetic Network, CIEN, Fermo, Italy Introduction. The unusual animal behaviours, often observed before earthquakes in a moderate seismic area in Western Piedmont (NW Italy), and the observations of anomalies in some physical parameters, induced the authors to create the “Seismic Precursors Study Centre”(SPSC). The SPSC is placed in de Liso’s house, inTorre Pellice (44°49’235’’ N, 7°123’04’’ E, Western Piedmont, NW Italy) at 699 m above sea level on Vandalino Mountain, not too far from an abandoned iron mine, near a particular “geological sanctuary” on “Castelluzzo” peak, which are rich in augen-gneiss, of eruptive origin, biotite, ophiolite, zeolite, pechblenda and “Luserna Stone” (gneiss) (Compagnoni, 1981). The place is also near a forest, at a distance of 70 m from the Biglione creek, 600 m from a graphite mine, 12 km far from talc mines in Prali’s area. The recent classification of the seismic risk in this area is 3S, with a moderate seismic activity. The area on Vandalino Mountain magnifies magnetic, electric and radioactive variations, due to interesting geological structures, like an intrusive volcano with geothermal activity, gas emission, radioactive decay, water pH variations in creeks and lakes, soil temperature increase, magnetic declination anomalies, Earthquake Lights (EQL) and infra-sounds. Some local unusual animal behaviours can suggest the occurrence of a local seismic event with epicentre distance ≤ 100 km. Observations of animals, instrumentation and monitoring. The observation of animal behaviours began in 1991 when some unusual recurrences in animal behaviour were noted to occur before earthquakes. The study of animal behaviour is conducted by the first author with the following modalities: • continuous observation of the behaviour of cats and dogs living in SPSC (in de Liso’s house) and of insects and arachnids inside and outside de Liso’s house; • very frequent observation of the behaviour of wild animals, but this is season dependent; • continuous hearing of languages of domestic and wild animals, on Mountain Vandalino, near and far from SPSC; • a comparison with other studies from different regions and with sporadic observations by people in Torre Pellice, Cavour and in areas of Pinerolo and Cuneo. These observations were supported by a multi-parameter monitoring, gradually more complex since 1998 (de Liso, 2011): magnetic induction and declination, β and γ emission, Radon 222 emission, temperature in subsoil and in Biglione’s water, pH of water, infrasounds. Since 2010, a station for ground electrical currents (Viotto, 2010) has been operative in Luserna San Giovanni (44°48’59”N, 7°14’18.77”E°, Western Piedmont), with monitoring of the electric field, by mean of an electric field detector made by Andrea Viotto, and seismic waves, by mean of a gravity-meter with an hanging pendulum (Viotto, 2011); after 2012, a station of the Central Italy Electromagnetic Network (CIEN) was installed in SPSC (Fidani, 2012). Characteristic ELF signals are monitored in relation to seismic activity (Fidani, 2011). This study produced results similar to those observed by Tsuneji Rikitake (Rikitake, 1968, 1987). Unusual animal behaviour before earthquakes. Even in case of a moderate local seismic activity, the various precursors and animal reactions appear to be connected with geological structures. When the epicentre distance to SPSC is inferior to 20–25 km, with a low magnitude (M ≤ 1), some unusual animal behaviours was always noted, a few days, a few hours and a few seconds before the seismic event, with different modalities for the three cases described 60 GNGTS 2013 S essione 2.1