Analysis of earthquake monitoring and early warning capability in eastern Inner Mongolia

To evaluate the seismic monitoring and early warning ability for the eastern region of Inner Mongolia, this study calculated the minimum magnitude monitoring ability and first reporting time for the single and mixed networks using two types of data, regional data from three early warning networks and micro-tremor data from a scientific array. The results showed that the seismic network had the highest regional minimum magnitude monitoring ability, followed by the strong motion network and finally the intensity network. This result is attributable to the remoteness of the seismic stations and lower self-noise level of the seismometer, higher self-noise level of the accelerograph and intensity meter, and, on the contrary, the city-located character of their stations. The self-noise level of the intensity meter is even higher than that of the accelerograph. Compared to the single network, the mixed network effectively shortened the first reporting time. For early warning capability, the evaluation is more reasonable based on the evaluation of seismic monitoring capability and the evaluation of first reporting time for the mixed network. The capability of monitoring and early warning in eastern Inner Mongolia is around magnitude 2.3, and the first early warning reporting time is within 14 seconds for magnitude 4.0 events. When combined with the scientific array, the capability reaches 1.8, with a 9 second early warning time for magnitude 3.5 events. To improve the monitoring and early warning capability, a more reasonable and low-cost choice is the combination with the scientific array, depending on the current early warning capability in eastern Inner Mongolia.