Experimental study on infrared anomaly of tectonic earthquake

Many scientists believe that the earthquake cannot be predicted. But, the fact that there were positive infrared (IR) anomalies in satellite remote sensing images 15-60 days before some moderate-strong tectonic earthquakes in Asia is changing the situation. To reveal the mechanism and to seek for the spatio-temporal laws of IR anomaly evaluation before tectonic earthquakes, a series of fundamental experiments detecting the surface IR radiation imags on loaded rock samples, which were designed to model the incubation of tectonic earthquakes, were conducted. This article introduced the spatio-temporal evaluation laws of IR anomaly from rock surface for the condition of compressively sheared rock, bi-axial loaded en echelon faults, compressively-sheared sliding faults and compressively loaded intersected faults, respectively simulating the four gestation mechanisms of tectonic earthquake. The experiments concluded that the tectonic earthquake is predictable, and the satellite IR remote sensing is a prospecting technique for earthquake prediction, especially in the condition that remote sensing is assisted with analyzing to rock properties of regional crust and locations of active faults.