研究期間:10201~10212;There are two fatal limitations for the past studies of earthquake precursors -- the rarity of great earthquakes and the low coverage of instrumental observatories. Taiwan is a small island located at the western Pacific Ocean. It is the good fortune that we have unfortunately frequent seismicity. After constructing a dense network of electromagnetic monitoring stations, a lot of earthquake-induced electromagnetic phenomena, no matter precursory or co-seismic ones, will be eventually observed throughout Taiwan. This then leads to a good possibility of earthquake prediction. This project aims at analyzing the stationary magnetotelluric data and arguing, based on three viewpoints of theory, experiments and field-observations, the conditions of producing the electrical polarization charges and the electric field prior to a great earthquake of a shear zone. Joining with Dr. Luciano Telesca from Italian side, we will adopt advanced nonlinear time series analysis for investigating the dynamics hidden behind the observed magnetotelluric data and will probe into the possibility of electrical polarization field existing before macroscopic breakdown of rocks, which might help us to elucidate the prediction feasibility of electromagnetic phenomena.