A palaeoearthquake event and its age revealed by the travertine layer along the Litang fault in the southeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

The Litang fault(LTF),located in the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,is known for its high level of present-day seismicity,whereas its Pleistocene activity has been scarcely documented.This study focused on a tract of banded travertine deposits precipitated from thermal waters along the NW–SE-trending LTF trace.The role of travertine deposits in recording neotectonic activity has been studied by identifying their internal structure.Typical soft-sediment deformation structures observed within the banded travertines include micro folds,liquefied breccia,and liquefied diapirs.These deformed structures,which are restricted to a single unit separated unconformably by undeformed layers,can be traced for tens of meters,indicating that they were formed by seismic shaking triggered by LTF activity.The deformation of the banded travertine layers is attributed to the combined effects of seismic shaking,liquefaction,and fluidization,and it can be related to a paleo earthquake event with a magnitude of MS>5.The U-series ages obtained from the banded travertine deposits perturbed by the earthquakes are in the range of 130.59–112.94 ka,indicating an important fault-assisted neotectonic activity that occurred during the Middle–Late Pleistocene.Analysis of such structures,in combination with the use of U-series dating methods,can yield a reliable timing of neotectonic activity and provide new evidence for under-standing the seismotectonic setting of the Litang area.

Three dimensional velocity structure and accurate earthquake location in Changning–Gongxian area of southeast Sichuan

In order to understand the crustal structure and tectonic background of the Changning–Gongxiang area, southeastern Sichuan Province, where a series of moderate-to-strong earthquakes occurred in recent years, we utilized the seismic phase data both from a local dense array and from the regional seismic networks;we used the tomoDD program to invert for the high-resolution three-dimensional velocity structure within the depth range of 0–10 km and for accurate hypocentral locations in this area. We analyzed the seismogenic structures for the events of Xingwen M5.7 in 2018 and Gongxian M5.3 and Changning M6.0 in 2019. The results show that:(1) widespread lateral inhomogeneity exists in the velocity structure of the study area, and the location of the velocity anomaly is largely consistent with known structures. In the range of distinguishable depth, the inhomogeneity decreases with increasing depth, and the velocity structure anomalies in some areas are continuous in depth;(2) earthquakes occurred in clusters, showing the characteristics of zonal folding trends in the NW-SE and NE-SW directions;the focal depth in the area is generally shallow in both the sedimentary cap and the crystalline basement. The seismogenic structures of small earthquake clusters are different in size and occurrence in different sections, and the clusters occurred mostly in regions with high P-or S-wave velocities;(3) synthesis of a variety of data suggests that the seismogenic structures of the Xingwen M5.7 and Changning M6.0 earthquakes are associated with slip faults that trend NW-SE in, respectively, the south wing and the axis of the Changning–Shuanghe anticline, while that of the Gongxian M5.3 earthquake is associated with thrust faults that trend N-S in the Jianwu syncline region. The dynamic sources of the three earthquakes are all from the SE pushing of the Qinghai–Tibet block on the Sichuan basin;(4) the risk of future strong earthquakes in this area must be reevaluated in light of the facts(a)that in recent years, moderate-to-strong earthquake swarms have occurred frequently in southeast Sichuan;(b) that the complex structural area exhibits the easy-to-trigger characteristic, and(c) that the small-scale faults in this area are characterized by the phenomenon of stress "lock and release".

Co-Seismic Surface Rupture and Recurrence Interval of Large Earthquakes along Damaoyaba-Litang Segment of the Litang Fault on the Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau in China

The Litang fault is a left-lateral secondary shear zone in the Sichuan-Yunnan active block that accommodates the tectonic deformation associated with the eastward extrusion of the upper crust of the Tibetan Plateau. Based on 1 : 50 000 geological mapping of active faults, the Litang fault consists of three geometric segments, the Cuopuhu, Damaoyaba, and Litang segments, in the west of Litang, which are divided by the of Haizi Mountain uplift and the wide-angle bending and branching of the fault near Jinchanggou. This study also identifies the surface rupture of the A.D. 1890 earthquake, which is distributed intermittently along the ~28 km long Damaoyaba segments and ~25 km long Litang segments. The maximum horizontal displacement is 4.1 m along Damaoyaba segments, and 4 m along Litang segments. The rupture involves typical left-lateral shear movement. The two ruptures are divided by discontinuous segments or gaps that are ~18 km long;thus, the total surface rupture is approximately 71 km long. The estimated moment magnitude was M_(w)7.3±0.1. A comprehensive analysis of data obtained from 5 trenches excavated along the Damaoyaba and Litang segments and the trench data by Xu et al.(2005) identifies age constraints of the 4 most recent paleoseimic events occurred B.C. 1468±54–1340±25, B.C. 52±25–A.D. 76±47, A.D. 1115±90, and A.D. 1890, respectively. The recurrence intervals are 1 415±80, 1 104±104, and 775±90 a, which are consistent with quasi-periodic earthquake recurrence behavior. The average recurrence interval is 1 098±112 a.