THE ANALYSIS OF REMOTE SENSING IMAGES FOR ACTIVE FAULTS AND EARTHQUAKES IN CHINA

The Landsat image information has recently been widely applied to structural geology, especially to the analysis of lineaments, owing to their macroscopic, visual and comprehensive features. The images will be more effective when applied to the interpretation of active faults. Active faults are widely ditributed in China. Much attention has been paid to the study of active faults both in China and abroad. There is certain controversy concerning the implication of the term "active fault". Strictly speaking, the term should refer only to the faults that are still active in the present day. However, the term also usually refers to the faults which have been active continually or intermittently from the Quaternary (or the end of Tertiary) to the present day. We propose that the tones and the configurations of features on Landsat images are the principal keys to the interpretation of active faults. The faults, which display the most prominent

Distribution of apparent stress in western China

Distribution of apparent stress in Chinese mainland and its surrounding regions was presented using the NEIC broadband radiated energy catalogue and the Harvard CMT catalogue from January 1987 to December 1998. Due to the limitation on the number of samples, reliable results are only for the western China. It is observed that the average apparent stress in Chinese mainland is 0.8 MPa; The maximum apparent stress to the east of the Tibetan plateau is 2.6 MPa; And the average apparent stress in the north-south seismic belt is more than one time higher than its adjacent regions. Distribution pattern of apparent stress seems to have a large-scale correlation with the cumulative energy release level in the 20th century.

Earthquake engineering in China

The development of earthquake engineering in China is described into three stages.The initial stage in 1950's- 1960's was marked with the initiation of this branch of science from its creation in the first national 12-year plan of science and technology by specifying earthquake engineering as a branch item and IEM was one participant.The first earthquake zonation map and the first seismic design code were soon completed and used in engineering design.Site effect on structural design and site selection were seriously studied.The second stage marked with the occurrence of quite a few strong earthquakes in China, from which many lessons were learned and corresponding considerations were specified in our design codes and followed in construction practice.The third stage is a stage of disaster management,which is marked by a series of government documentations,leading by a national law of the People's Republic of China on the protecting against and mitigating earthquake disasters adopted at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China in 1997,and then followed by some provincial and municipal laws to force the actions outlined in the national law.It may be expected that our society will be much more safer to resist the attack of future strong earthquakes with less losses.Lastly, possible future developments are also discussed.

Earthquake Disaster and Seismic Activity in China Since 1949

An outline is given in the present paper of the general situation of earthquake disasters and their temporal,spatial,and magnitude distributions in China since 1949,based on recently published Chinese disaster data.A comparison was made between the earthquake disasters and seismic activities in China during this period.The results show that 477 disaster-causing earthquakes have occurred during this period,resulting in a death toll of 278,000 persons and the collapse of 11,000,000 rooms in residence houses.The total direct economic losses exceeded 42 billion Yuan(Chinese currency,the same below).A comparison of earthquake disasters in various regions(between East and West China,between various provinces,etc.)has shown that both correlations and significant differences exist between the spatial distributions of earthquake disasters and seismic activities in China.For example,seismic activity shows a feature of being "stronger in the West than in the East," whereas the earthquake disasters are stronger

Using Grey System Theory for Earthquake Forecast

By combining conventional grey correlation analysis, grey clustering method and grey forecasting methods with our multi-goal forecast thoughts and the techniques of grey time series processing, we develop six different grey earthquake forecast models in this paper. Using the record of major earthquakes in Japan from 1872 to 1995, we forecast future earthquakes in Japan. We develop an earthquake forecast model. By using the major earthquakes in Japan from 1872 to 1984, we forecast earthquakes from 1985 to 1995 and check the precision of the grey earthquake models. We find that the grey system theory can be applied to earthquake forecast. We introduce the above analysis methods and give a real example to evaluate and forecast. We also further discuss the problems of how to improve the precision of earthquake forecast and how to strengthen the forecast models in future research.