'Air gun' yields earthquake data in China

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Chinese scientists say a new tool, essentially a giant air gun, may help provide a clearer picture of the minute movements of seismic faults in an earthquake.

The new method employs an air gun that shoots acoustic waves into a lake to illuminate how faults and other subterranean structures near a lake can subtly deform over time, LiveScience.com reported Wednesday.

The air gun is located at Binchuan Transmitting Seismic Station at the northern section of the Red River Fault in China's Yunnan province, where it intersects another major fault, the Chenghai Fault.

The air gun immersed in Lake Dayindian, a 494-acre reservoir, creates ground shaking estimated to be equivalent to that of a magnitude 0.5 earthquake and works in concert with an array of permanent and portable seismic stations that spans an area of 3,860 square miles.

Data from 111 test shots fired over six nights "provides an unprecedented opportunity to monitor the subsurface changes of the fault zone," Baoshan Wang at the China Earthquake Administration's Institute of Geophysics in Beijing said.

"The next step is we are trying to develop a similar system that is more portable, which will help us to monitor the subsurface at any place we want," Wang said.