Episodic radon changes in subsurface soil gas along active faults and possible relation to earthquakes

Subsurface soil gas along active faults in central California has been continuously monitored by the Track Etch method to test whether its radon‐isotope content may show any premonitory changes useful for earthquake prediction. The monitoring network was installed in May 1975 and has since been gradually expanded to consist of more than 60 stations along a 380‐km section of the San Andreas fault system between Santa Rosa and Cholame. This network has recorded several episodes, each lasting several weeks to several months, during which the radon concentration increased by a factor of approximately 2 above average along some long, but limited, fault segments (∼100 km). These episodes occurred in different seasons and do not appear to be systematically related to changes in meteorological conditions. However, they coincided reasonably well in time and space with larger local earthquakes above a threshold magnitude of about 4.0. These episodic radon changes may be caused by a changing outgassing rate in the fault zones in response to some episodic strain changes, which incidentally caused the earthquakes.