Spatio-temporal dynamic variation of thermal anomalies before and after the 2005 Jiujiang M_S5.7 earthquake based on the modulation of additive tectonics stress induced by tide-generating force

A variation model of additive tectonics stress caused by celestial tide-generating force was put forward to explain its relationship with seismic fault sliding.By applying the model, we analyzed spatio-temporal dynamic evolution characteristics of thermal anomaly based on the multi-source temperature data from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of USA before and after the M_S5.7 earthquake in Jiujiang, China on November 26, 2005. The results indicate that, on one hand, the evolution of thermal anomaly from initial growth to extinction coincided with the process of rock under the stress from deformation to breaking in time series. The areas of temperature increasing either in near-surface atmospheric layer or in the multi-layers above distributed mainly in active fault zones and their vicinities, which is agreement with the distribution of tectonic fault zones. Furthermore, the vertical distribution of thermal anomaly from near-surface to upper air went through the following stages: atmospheric warming caused by surface heating→lifting→diffusion→disappear, which accords with the basic characteristics of atmospheric dynamics, indicating that tectonic movement was the main cause of the change in the temperature anomalies. On the other hand, the abnormal variations of temperature followed the cyclical change (low-high-low) of tide-generating force, which showed that the astro-tidal triggering had a particular indicative significance for the identification of temperature anomaly on seismic faults, and it could trigger an earthquake when the tectonic stress was in critical status. It indicated that the method of combining additive tectonics stress caused by tide-generating force with thermal anomaly change could be used for the studies of short-impending earthquake prediction.