Heterogeneous strain regime in the eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau and its tectonic implications

The eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau is one of the most active zones of tectonic deformation and seismicity in China. To monitor strain buildup and benefit seismic risk assessment, we constructed 14 survey-mode global position system （GPS） stations throughout the northwest of Longmenshan fault. A new GPS field over 1999-2011 is derived from measurements of the newly built and pre-existing stations in this region. Sequentially, two strain rate fields, one preceding and the other following the 2008 MwT.9 Wenchuan earthquake, are obtained using the Gausian weighting approach. Strain field over 1999-2007 shows distinct strain partitioning prior to the 2008 MwT.9 Wenchuan earthquake, with compression spreading over around Longmenshan area. Strain fieldderived from the two measurements in 2009 and 2011 shows that the area around Longmenshan continues to be under striking compression, as the pattern preceding the Wenchuan earthquake, implying a causative factor of the sequent of 2013 Mw6.7 Lushan earthquake. Our GPSderived dilatation shows that both the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes occurred within the domain of pro- nounced contraction. The GPS velocities demonstrate that the Longriba fault underwent slight motion with the faultnormal and -parallel rates at 1.0 -4- 2.5 mm and 0.3 4-2.2 mm/a; the Longmenshan fault displayed slow activity, with a fault-normal rate at 0.8 ± 2.5 mm/a, and a fault-parallel rate at 1.8 4- 1.7 mm/a. Longriba fault is on a par with Longmenshan fault in strain partitioning to accommodate the southeastward motion of eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Integrated analysis of principal strain tensors, mean principal stress, and fast directions of mantle anisotropy shows that west of Sichuan is characterized as mechanically strong crust-mantle coupling.

GPS station short-term dynamic characteristics of micro displacement before Menyuan M6.4 earthquake

Continuous observation data from 24 GPS stations are selected in the area （33.0°N-41.0°N, 95.0°E-105.0°E） for this study （the period is from Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 20, 2016）. Three components, NS, EW and UD, of the daily solutions are filtered by the Hilbert-Huang transform （HHT） with frequency band of 5.787×10^-7-7.716 ×10^-8 Hz （20-150 days in period）. And short-term dynamic characteristics of micro displacement before Menyuan M6.4 earthquake are studied by using the temporal dependencies and cross spectrum analysis. The results show that before the earthquake the horizontal undulatory motions are higher than the average level in the series data which indicate the disturbance feature of regional stress before the earthquake. Three GPS stations on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with their setting perpendicular to the seismogenic fault have consistent movement. The increase of amplitude of the horizontal micro motion observed before the quake is conducive to the earthquake occurrence. However, we could not be sure if the undulatory motion triggered the earthquake. It is quite necessary to build more GPS continuous observation stations and optimize the monitoring network so as to improve the understanding of the shortterm dynamic crustal variation before earthquake.

Precision estimation and geomorphological analysis based on the DEM generated by InSAR: Taking Damxung-Yangbajain area as an example

Digital elevation model （DEM） can be generated by interferometric synthetic aperture radar （InSAR）. In this paper, the interferometric processing and analyses are carried out for Damxung-Yangbajain area in Tibet, using a pair of Europe remote-sensing satellite （ERS）-1/2 tandem SAR images acquired on 6 and 7 April 1996. A portion of the In- SAR-derived DEM is selected and compared with the 1：50 000 DEM to determine the precision of the InSAR-derived DEM. The comparison indicates that the root mean squared errors （RMSE）, which are used to evaluate error, are about 35, 60, 10, and 15 m in the studied area, mountainous area, basin area and near-fault area, respectively, suggesting that obvious errors are mainly in mountainous area. Besides, the limitation of InSAR technology to generate DEM is analyzed. Our investigation shows that InSAR is an effective tool in geodesy and an important complement to field surveying in some dangerous areas.

Contemporary kinematic models and moment deficit of Chinese mainland

There are lots of achievements about kinematics of Chinese mainland and its vicinity determined from historic earthquake data, Quaternary fault rates and geodesy observations, which provide basic data for analysis of seismic hazard in study areas. Based on impreciseness in using energy of 47 earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7.0 in previous study, we firstly collected source parameters, surface ruptures and displacements of major earthquakes carefully, and divided them into small segmentations with these data gathered. Secondly, we determined contemporary deformation field from latest earthquake mechanisms, Quaternary fault slip rates and geodesy observations. Finally, we evaluated moment deficit of study areas from historic earthquake data and predicted deformation field, and removed 10 percent of aseismic deformation. Combining with previous results, we analyzed the seismic hazard of study areas. The results show that there are some areas with large moment deficit in Chinese mainland. There are also large moment deficit areas, including regions around the Ordos Block, southeastern coast of China and the Bakal rift zone. Previous studies show that there may be some potential earthquakes in the near future in Darts of areas mentioned above.

一个产香大型真菌鉴定及其挥发性成分分析

【目的】开发优质的产香大型真菌资源,丰富挥发性香味成分的获取途径。【方法】本文通过传统形态分类学和分子生物学相结合的方法对采自泰国北部的野生产香大型真菌及其菌株进行鉴定。利用液体发酵、HP20大孔树脂固相萃取和气相色谱-质谱联用(GC-MS)等方法分析发酵液中的挥发性物质。同时筛选了对该真菌液体培养的最佳碳源、氮源及无机盐离子条件。【结果】该真菌经鉴定为茉莉小皮伞Marasmiusjasminodorus,分析发现其主要香味组分及对应的峰面积百分比分别为芳樟醇(33.11%)、5-羟甲基糠醛(4.64%)、4-甲基-5-(β羟乙基)噻唑(4.55%)、甲基麦芽酚(4.49%)、糠醇(4.46%)、桃醛(2.20%)、羟基丙酮(2.18%)等。同时该菌的最优培养液配方中最佳碳源、氮源及无机盐离子为麦芽糖、酵母粉和KH2PO4。【结论】本研究表明该大型真菌能够产生多种在现有工业生产中广泛应用的挥发性香味成分,如芳樟醇等,所以其在天然香精香料生产中具有较好的潜在应用前景。

Uncovering the mysterious identity of Taisui——an old Chinese folk legend

Dear Editor,Taisui(太岁) has attracted great attention in China because it has been described in ancient Chinese texts as an entity possessing mysterious properties. In Chinese mythology and folklore, Jupiter is the God of the "Sui"(year) and is worshiped in Daoism. Jupiter appears at the same location in the sky approximately every 12 years(Jupiter’s orbit is11.86 years). However, since each cycle of Jupiter lasts for exactly 11.86 years and one Chinese year cycle comprises exactly 12 years, after approximately 84.7 years, Jupiter travels one cycle more than the number of cycles assumed by the ancient Chinese, which is called Taisui. According to the belief of the ancient Chinese, people are alerted when Taisui is digging in the ground, foretelling the destruction of houses or occurrence of natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes(Zhao et al., 2018).