Radon measurements along active faults in the Langadas Basin, northern Greece

Abstract. A network of three radon stations has been established in the Langadas Basin, northern Greece for radon monitoring by various techniques in earthquake prediction studies. Specially made devices with plastic tubes including Alpha Tracketch Detectors (ATD) were installed for registering alpha particles from radon and radon decay products exhaled from the ground, every 2 weeks, by using LR-115, type II, non-strippable Kodak films, starting from December 1996. Simultaneous measurements started using Lucas cells alpha spectrometer for instantaneous radon measurements in soil gas, before and after setting ATDs at the radon stations. Continuous monitoring of radon gas exhaling from the ground started from the middle of August 1999 by using silicon diode detectors, which simultaneously register meteorological parameters, such as rainfall, temperature and barometric pressure. The obtained data were studied together with the data of seismic events, such as the magnitude, M_L, of earthquakes that occurred at the Langadas Basin during the period of measurements, as registered by the Laboratory of Geophysics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in order to find out any association between them.