Analysis of Remote Sensing Images of Ground Ruptures Resulting from the Kunlun Mountain Pass Earthquake in 2001

On November 14, 2001, an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 8.1 occurred to the west of the Kunlun Mountain Pass which is near the border between Xinjiang and Qinghai of China. Since its epicenter is located in an area at an elevation of 4900 m where the environment is extremely adverse, field investigation to this event seems very difficult. We have performed interpretation and analysis of the satellite images of ETM, SPOT, Ikonos, and ERS-1/2SAR to reveal the spatial distribution and deformation features of surface ruptures caused by this large earthquake. Our results show that the rupture zone on the ground is 426 km long, and strikes N90-110°E with evident left-lateral thrusting. In spatial extension, it has two distinct sections. One extends from the Bukadaban peak to the Kunlun Mountain Pass, with a total length of 350 km, and trending N95-110°E. Its fracture plane is almost vertical, with clear linear rupture traces and a single structure, and the maximum left-lateral offset is 7.8 m. This section is the main rupture zone caused by the earthquake, which is a re-fracturing along an old fault. The other is the section from Kushuihuan to the Taiyang Lake. It is 26 km long, trending N90-105°E, with the maximum strike-slip displacement being 3 m, and is a newly-generated seismic rupture. In a 50 km-long section between the Taiyang Lake and the Bukadaban peak, no rupture is found on the ground. The eastern and western rupture zones may have resulted from two earthquakes. The macroscopic epicenter is situated at 65 km east of the Hoh Sai Lake. The largest coseismic horizontal offset in the macroscopic epicenter ranges from 7 m to 8 m. Based on the dislocation partition of the whole rupture zone, it is suggested that this rupture zone has experienced a process of many times of intensification and fluctuation, exhibiting a remarkable feature of segmentation.

Research on Characteristics of Focal Rupture of the Zhangbei-Shangyi Earthquake by Means of Deformation Field Obtained by Spaceborne D-INSAR

In the last ten years, the D_InSAR (Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) technique has proved very useful; it has been a new space observation technique with great potential. Investigating seismic focus rupture information using D_InSAR is a scientific issue to which more attention is being paid. In this paper, the basic theory of seismic focus dislocation models is discussed briefly. Based on a map of the interferometric deformation field of the Zhangbei_Shangyi earthquake from Jan.10, 1998, and applying the seismic focus dislocation model within elastic half_space medium; some geometrical and kinematical characteristics of the main seismic fault are deduced. Results were as follows: the seismic break surface of the Zhangbei_Shangyi earthquake is left_slip and thrust fault, striking in SEE_NWW 272°with dip angle 46°; rupture direction is unilateral faulting from SEE to NWW; length of rupture zone is 9km, width is 8km, and depth is 8km, the displacement vector of three directions are 290mm, 560mm and 0mm.