Intrinsic and scattering attenuations of the Sichuan-Yunnan region in China from S coda waves

Seismic attenuation is a fundamental property of the Earth's media.Attenuation structure for the complicated geological structures with strong seismicity in the Sichuan-Yunnan region is poorly studied.In this study,we collected 108,399 waveforms of 11,517 local small earthquakes with magnitudes between 1.5 and 3.5 from January 2014 to September 2021 in the Sichuan-Yunnan region and its adjacent areas.We employed an envelope inversion technique for separating the intrinsic and scattering attenuations of the S coda wave,and obtained the intrinsic and scattering attenuation structures for frequencies between 0.25 and 8.00 Hz.The attenuation structures correlate well with the geological units,and some major faults mark the attenuation variations where historic large earthquakes have occurred.The regional average attenuation shows a negative frequency dependence.The average scattering attenuation has a faster descending rate than the average intrinsic attenuation,and is dominant at low frequencies,while at high frequencies the average intrinsic attenuation is stronger.The lateral variation in the intrinsic attenuation is consistent with the variation in heat flow,the scattering attenuation may be related to the scatter distribution and size.The total attenuation is consistent with the previous studies in this region,and the separate intrinsic and scattering attenuation may be useful in understanding regional tectonics and important in earthquake prevention and disaster reduction.

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.

Spatiotemporal evolution of the 2021 M_(S)6.4 Yangbi earthquake sequence

Based on the seismic phase reports of the Yangbi area from January 1 to June 25,2021,and the waveform data of M≥4 earthquakes,we obtained the relocation results and focal mechanism solutions of the M_(S)6.4 Yangbi earthquake sequence using the HypoDD and CAP methods.Based on our results,our main conclusions are as follows:(1)the M_(S)6.4 Yangbi earthquake sequence is a typical foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence.The fore-shocks of the first two stages have the obvious fronts of migration and their migration rate increased gradually.There was no apparent front of migration during the third stage,and the occurrence of the mainshock was related to stress triggering from a M5.3 foreshock.We tentatively speculate that the rupture pattern of the Yangbi earthquake sequence conforms to the cascading-rupture model;and(2)the main fault of the M_(S)6.4 Yangbi earthquake sequence is a NW-trending right-lateral strike-slip fault.As time progressed,a minor conjugate aftershock belt formed at the northwest end of this fault,and a dendritic branching structure emerged in the southern fault segment,showing a complex seismogenic fault structure.We suggested that the fault of the Yangbi earthquake sequence may be a young sub-fault of the Weixi-Weishan fault.

The seismogenic structures and migration characteristics of the 2021 Yangbi M6.4 Earthquake sequence in Yunnan,China

We constructed a more complete earthquake catalog in the 2021 Yangbi M6.4 focal area by re-scanning the continuous waveforms integrated with deep learning and template matching techniques,to explore the seismogenic structures of the Yangbi mainshock and its nucleation process.The new catalog has three times the number of earthquakes than the CENC catalog,and the magnitude completeness has dropped from 1.1 to 0.5.The distribution of earthquakes indicates a broom-shaped structure consisting of several oblique secondary faults and a strike-slip main fault which strikes to 315°with 80°dipping to NE.The earthquakes extend along the fault strike about 27 km in width and 2-13 km at depth and have noticeable variations on seismicity in the mainshock’s north and south.Compared with the north,the south has denser and higher magnitude aftershocks and also has a seismic gap probably weakened by the fluid at the depth range of about 5-6 km.The foreshocks were mainly active in the 8-kilometer-long fault zone south of the mainshock,which show a steady drop in b-values over time and a migration pattern toward the epicenter of two steep jumps,stagnation,and then acceleration which finally triggered the mainshock.While in the north,seldom foreshock occurred,and the aftershocks were delayed triggered 3 hours after the mainshock,and sparsely scattered shallow at depth and small in magnitude.To summarize,the northern part of the Yangbi seismogenic fault is thought to be relatively locked,whereas the southern part has a weakening zone and promotes pre-slip.The nucleation mechanism of the mainshock and its onset at the junction of the locked and pre-slip zones may be a combination of pre-slip and cascade triggering.