GNGTS 2013 SES S IONE 2.1 MULtIpLE PaRaMEtER MONItORINg aND SEISMIC pRECURSORY pHENOMENOLOgY IN UNUSUaL aNIMaL BEHaVIOUR IN WEStERN PIEDMONt G. de Liso1,2,3, C. Fidani1,4, A. Viotto1 1Seismic Precursors Study Center (SPSC), Associazione Culturale “Le Nuove Muse”, Torre Pellice, Italy 2Istituto di Alta formazione artistica e musicale “G.F. Ghedini”, Cuneo Italy 3Voce Pinerolese, Pinerolo, Italy 4Central 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, in Torre 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, Radon222 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 131218 - OGS.Atti.32_vol.2.sez.1.16.indd 60 07/11/13 08.32 GNGTS 2013 SES S IONE 2.1 below. But the same unusual animal behaviours before earthquakes with epicentre distances to SPSC progressively increasing were observed if there was also a progressive increase in the magnitude. The anomalous animal behaviours was observed with the following modalities: 1. particular vocal language in a tripartite sequence (in 3.2, 3.3); 2. non-vocal anomalous behaviour different from the usual pattern (in 4.1); 3. problems to health and safety (in 5.1). Particular vocal language in a tripartite sequence: animal alarms with shrills and high sounds. The acoustic perception of vocal alarms can regard a large area, it gives concise information and it is easier to note. The animal vocal alarm is a particular vocal language, usually directed to other members of the same species, sometimes to other species. It is an individual answer to the danger or a co-ordinate answer of the leading animal to the same danger. The first author has individuated a particular tripartite sequence in the vocal alarms of do- mestic animals and birds: phase A, lasting up to 2 hours, with shrills and high sounds, from 30 minutes until 10 hours before the earthquake; then, when cries stop simultaneously, phase B follows, with a strange and worry silence; finallyphase C, with animal cries normally 20-40 seconds before the earthquake, a few times just 5-10 seconds before, generally stopping few seconds before the shock. The phase C is corroborated by the observations of other research- ers in case of other earthquakes (Rikitake, 1978, 1982). The vocal animal alarms beginning up to 10 hours before local earthquakes, sometimes before distant earthquakes if the future magnitude is great- er, are contemporaneous to the drastic reduction of variations in intensity and declination of the magnetic field and of radio- activity values. So, Figs. 1a and 1b resume an interesting rela- tion between seismic epicentre distances to SPSC, magnitude and percentage of unusual an- Fig. 1 – Percentage of vocal animal alarms in phase A and C, in relation to epicentre distance to SPSC. 61 131218 - OGS.Atti.32_vol.2.sez.1.16.indd 61 07/11/13 08.32 GNGTS 2013 SES S IONE 2.1 imal behaviours, in relation to domestic animal cries and to bird songs, noted before the same seismic event. Obviously, unusual animal behaviours can be only taken into account for those species whose normal behaviour is known. Statistical study of the behaviour of dogs and cats. A statistical study of unusual animal behaviours before earthquakes in Western Piedmont has been completed. The early warnings from dogs and cats were considered before 39 earthquakes around SPSC. The earthquakes were chosen depending on magnitudes and distances, approximately satisfying the Dobrovolsky condition (Dobrovolsky, 1979): they are shown in Tab. 1. A total of 55 early warnings consisting of 39 dog cries and 16 cats hiding were observed. They occurred during phase A, therefore we are considering a smaller time interval with respect to observations of different animals in all the phases of past works. For this reason, frequency distribution was calculated with respect to simple time t, as it is shown in Fig. 2a on the left. The shape of this is well described by a Weibull distribution (Weibull, 1951). Following Rikitake (2003), a function R(t) = 1 – F(t) was defined, where F(t) is the cumulative probability of an earthquake occurring during a period from 0 to t. A plot of Ln (Ln (1/R(t))) versus Ln (t) is shown in Fig. 2a on the right. The straight- line fitting in the figure, neglecting the lower value of Ln (t) for which a different distribution is probably valid (Rikitake, 2003), confirms that the distribution can roughly be governed by a Weibull distribution with coefficients K = 0.00033 and m = 4.1. Mean and standard deviation can be calculated through the Gamma function respectively E(t) = [k/(m+1)]-1/(m+1) Γ[(m+2)/(m+1)]; σ = E(t) {Γ[(m+3)/(m+1)] / Γ2[(m+2)/(m+1)] – 1}½ Fig. 2 – Statistical distribution in phase A of anomalous behaviours of dogs and cats. 62 131218 - OGS.Atti.32_vol.2.sez.1.16.indd 62 07/11/13 08.32 GNGTS 2013 SES S IONE 2.1 producing E(t) = 6.1 hours and σ = 1.4 hours, anticipating of some hours the general animal precursors (Rikitake, 2003), but according to previous results for dogs and cats (Rikitake, 1982). Data from the phase C were excluded as they were considered to reveal animal agitation at the time of P-wave arrival. The early time distribution was also plotted with respect to the earthquake magnitudes and depths (see Fig. 2b). For dogs and cats behaviours, early times resulted independent from the earthquake magnitude, even if small earthquakes can alarm dogs and cats later with respect to greater earthquakes. Such small earthquakes have generally greater depths than small earthquakes which alarms dogs and cats around the average (see Fig. 2b on the right). Finally, great earthquakes influence dog and cat behaviours from any depths around the average early time. Non-vocal anomalous behaviour different from the usual pattern. When the rise in temperature, in the emission of gas, or in magnetic declination are great, we can observe evident anomalous animal behaviours, that are reactions to save theirselves. a. The most evident non-vocal animal behaviours is the advanced awakening from hibernation, probably due to a rise in temperature or to emissions of dangerous gas. Winter seismic activity is a better forewarning of the first shock because the precursor increase in soil and water temperature is well remarked. An increase in temperature of about 5-6 °C above the mean seasonal values at SPSC was often recorded before a seism.