Possible triggering relationship of six Mw > 6 earthquakes in 2018–2019 at Philippine archipelago

Philippine archipelago (PA) has strong background seismicity,but there is no systematic study of earthquake triggering in this region. There are six earthquakes (M_(w) > 6) occurred between 2018/12/29 and 2019/09/29 in PA,which provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the triggering relationship among these events. We calculate the static Coulomb stress changes of the first five events,and find that the local seismicity after the 2018/12/29 M_(w) 7.0 earthquake is mostly associated with positive Coulomb stress changes,including the 2019/05/31 M_(w) 6.1 event,suggesting a possible triggering relationship. However,we cannot rule out the dynamic triggering mechanism,due to increased microseismicity in both positive and negative stress change regions,and an incomplete local catalog,especially right after the first M_(w) 7.0 mainshock. The dynamic stresses from these M_(w) > 6 events are large enough (from 5 kPa to 3532 kPa) to trigger subsequent events,but a lack of seismicity and waveform evidence does not support delayed dynamic triggering among these events,even the shortest time interval is less than 24 hours. In the past 45 years,the released seismic energy shows certain peaks every 5–10 years. However,earthquakes with M_(w) > 6.0 were relatively infrequent between 2004 and 2018 at PA. Hence,it is possible that several regions are relatively late in their earthquake cycles,which would enhance their susceptibility of being triggered by earthquakes at nearby and regional distances.

Research on seismic stress triggering

This paper briefly reviews basic theory of seismic stress triggering. Recent development on seismic stress triggering has been reviewed in the views of seismic static and dynamic stress triggering, application of viscoelastic model in seismic stress triggering, the relation between earthquake triggering and volcanic eruption or explosion, other explanation of earthquake triggering, etc. And some suggestions for further study on seismic stress triggering in near future are given.

Co-seismic changes of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake and six aftershocks recorded by four deformation instruments at Xuzhou seismostation

Co-seismic changes of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake and six strong aftershocks were recorded by 4 digital deformation instruments at Xuzhou seismostation at an cpicentral distance of 1392 km. The result shows that the straln-step changes and wave motions are caused by the arrival of the corresponding surface waves. The shape and size of the step changes and the response time were different for different instruments, even they were located in the same rock body only 7.65 m to 10.57 m apart. This difference is probably a reflection of different instrument properties, such as sensitivity and frequency response. The earthquake-caused stress changes, which were mainly compression in Xuzhou, had an important triggering effect on far-field strain changes

Dynamic Trigger and Moisture Source of Two Typical Meiyu Front Rainstorms Associated with Eastward-Moving Cloud Clusters from the Tibetan Plateau

Eastward-moving cloud clusters from the Tibetan Plateau(TP)often trigger heavy rainfall events in the Yangtze River basin in summer.Forecasting these events in an operational environment remains a challenging task.Here,dynamical diagnosis and a Lagrangian trajectory model are used to analyze the background atmospheric circulation,maintenance mechanism,and moisture transport of two Meiyu front rainstorms(MYFR)during 30 June-2 July 2016 and 17-19 June 2018 associated with eastward-moving cloud clusters from the TP.It is shown that in both cases heavy rainfall is characterized by semi-continuous rainbelts extending from the eastern TP to the Yangtze River valleys with eastward-spreading convective clouds weakening and strengthening alternately from the eastern TP to downstream regions.Following the track of positive water vapor advection,centers of positive vorticity propagate downstream through the Sichuan basin.The baroclinic thermodynamic–dynamical interaction and the barotropic nonequilibrium force work against each other in the development of the MYFR.Specifically,during the early stage of precipitation development,the barotropic non-equilibrium force dominates,while during the period of heavy precipitation the baroclinic thermodynamic-dynamical interaction dominates.The convergence associated with the baroclinic thermodynamic-dynamical interaction guarantees the persistence of heavy precipitation.Compared to the climate mean state(1988-2018),both MYFR events associated with eastward-moving cloud clusters from the eastern TP are characterized by increased moisture transport from the southwest.One of the major paths of moisture transport in both cases is along the south side of the TP,directly connected to the eastward movement of cloud clusters.