The Lushan earthquake occurred in China (Sichuan province) on 20 April 2013 at 00:02:47 UT (8:02:47 Chinese time). In this work, published in Remote Sensing ^[1], we searched for possible lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere coupling before the occurrence of the Lushan earthquake.

We identified three possible main coupling with different delay times of propagation from the bottom layer up to the ionosphere, suggesting two different coupling mechanisms. In particular, a first coupling was identified about 130 days before the earthquake, with a fast (order of one day) propagation delay; a second one, about 40 days before the earthquake occurrence, with a propagation delay of a few days and a third from 2.5 weeks until one week before the event. Such evidence suggests that the geo-layers could interact with different channels (pure electromagnetic or a chain of physical-chemical processes) with specific propagation delays. Such results support the understanding of the preparation for medium and large earthquakes globally, which is necessary (although not sufficient) knowledge in order to mitigate their impact on human life.

For the full detail of the investigation and look at all the investigated parameters we invite to read the publication^[1].