Responses of the LVD Detector to Earthquakes in Central Italy

The main sources of the background at the low threshold of the underground Large Volume Detector (LVD; Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy) are the natural radioactivity of the ground and radon, which escapes from groundwater into the atmosphere of the underground chamber through multiple microcracks in the rock. The LVD registers gamma quanta from decays of radon daughter nuclei. Deformations of the Earth’s crust produce stress and increase the number of microcracks, leading to enhanced concentration of radon. The detector’s count rate during the powerful earthquakes in central Italy in 2019 is analyzed.