Seismic analysis of the Xiluodu reservoir area and insights into the geometry of seismogenic faults

The Xiluodu(XLD)reservoir is the second largest reservoir in China and the largest in the Jinsha River basin.The occurrence of two M>5 earthquakes after reservoir impoundment has aroused great interest among seismologists and plant operators.We comprehensively analyzed the seismicity of the XLD reservoir area using precise earthquake relocation results and focal mechanism solutions and found that the seismicity of this area was weak before impoundment.Following impoundment,earthquake activity increased significantly.The occurrence of M≥3.5 earthquakes within five years of impoundment also appear to be closely related to rapid rises and falls in water level,though this correlation weakened after five years because earthquake activity was far from the reservoir area.Earthquakes in the XLD reservoir area are clustered;near the dam(Area A),small faults are intermittently distributed along the river,while Area B is composed of multiple NW-trending left-lateral strikeslip faults and a thrust fault and Area C is composed of a NW-trending left-lateral strike-slip main fault and a nearly EWtrending right-lateral strike-slip minor fault.The geometries of the deep and the shallow parts of the NW-trending fault differ.Under the action of the NW-trending background stress field,a series of NW-trending left-lateral strike-slip faults and NE-trending thrust faults in critical stress states were dislocated due to the stress caused by reservoir impoundment.The two largest earthquakes in the XLD reservoir area were tectonic earthquakes that were directly triggered by impoundment.

Seismic activities before and after the impoundment of the Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu reservoirs in the lower Jinsha River

The lower Jinsha River basin is located at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in Southwest China,a region with intense tectonic movements and frequent moderate to strong seismic activities.Cascade hydropower stations have been constructed along the lower Jinsha River since 2012.However,research on the effect of the impoundment of large-scale cascade reservoirs in a river basin on local seismic activities is currently lacking.Accurately identifying earthquake locations is essential for studying reservoir-induced earthquakes.Analyzing the spatiotemporal migration process of seismic activities based on complete and precise earthquake relocation is fundamental for determining the fluid diffusion coefficient,constructing fault models for reservoir areas,identifying earthquake types,exploring earthquake mechanisms,and evaluating seismic hazards.The seismicity pattern in the Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu reservoir areas,where seismic activities had been weak for a long time,has changed with the successive impoundment of the two reservoirs,showing microseismic events and seismic clusters.We investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics of seismic activities in the Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu reservoir areas using the waveform cross-correlation-based double-difference relocation technique and the b-value analysis method.We discovered that seismic events after the impoundment of these two reservoirs exhibited different characteristics in different regions.The seismic activities at the Xiluodu dam quickly responded to the rising water level,with the seismic intensity decaying rapidly afterward.These events were concentrated in the limestone strata along both sides of the Jinsha River,with a shallow focal depth,generally within 5 km,and a high b-value of approximately 1.2.Such features are close to those of karst-type earthquakes.Microseismic activities frequent occur on the eastern bank of the Yongshan reservoir section downstream of the Xiluodu dam,with two parallel NW-trending earthquake strips visible after precise earthquake relocation.The M_(S)5.2 earthquake near Wuji town on August 17,2014,had prominent foreshocks and aftershocks distributed in a clear NW-trending 20-km-long strip,perpendicular to the riverbank.These seismic events had a low b-value of approximately 0.7.The orientation of the node plane revealed by the strike-slip focal mechanism of the mainshock is consistent with that of the strip formed by the foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence,indicating the existence of a NW-striking concealed fault.Seismic activities near the Yanjin-Mabian fault upstream of the Xiangjiaba reservoir area since 2013 were concentrated in a NW-trending strip,with several near EW-trending seismic clusters on its western side,and with the largest event having a magnitude of M_(L)3.7.So far,the impoundment of the Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu reservoirs has not triggered seismic activities on the large Jinyang-Ebian and Yanjin-Mabian faults nearby.