Baikal Electromagnetic Experiment

The vertical component of the electric field Ez in the hydrosphere is not contaminated by the telluric component and therefore can effectively be used to monitor various processes in the hydrosphere itself, lithosphere, and atmosphere. For this purpose, the Ez monitoring experiment on the surface–floor base has been conducted in Lake Baikal since 2003. The lack of the telluric component is confirmed experimentally and justified by simulation. The effect and precursors of the close earthquake, the variations in total flows of water currents, and variations in the closing current of the Global Electric Circuit in the conducting Earth are studied. The measurements of macroscopic quantum nonlocal correlations have also been set up since 2012. Based on them, the possibility of forecasting processes with a large random component, in particular a remote earthquake, is demonstrated. On the territory adjacent to the deep-water monitoring site, measurements of the gradients of magnetic field variations have been underway since 2017; it is expected that these will be expanded to the entire coast of Lake Baikal. To interpret measurements, geoelectric models of the Baikal rift, which represent the known competing hypotheses, have been constructed.