Source Mechanisms of Recent Earthquakes in Southern Saudi Arabia: Detecting of New Seismic Sources

Recently in 2020, in southern Saudi Arabia three felt earthquakes occurred in Asir region, in the Khamis Mushait, Ahad Rafidah, and AL-Shuqiq area, of magnitude 3.45, 3.1, and 3.5, respectively. The most interesting event was the earthquake that occurred in Khamis Mushait area, along a lake formed behind the Tadhah Dam (~7 km), fearing any damage to the dam’s body and the consequent destruction. Moment tensors for each event were computed for determining fault plane solutions, seismic moment, moment magnitude (Mw) and the CLVD ratio. In addition, the frequency contents in the waveforms of each event were identified. The obtained focal mechanisms represent different styles of faulting, normal movement with strike slip and strike slip with reverse. These tectonic movements on faults parallel to the Red Sea refer to the tensional forces due to the Red Sea rift system. These events occurred due to a natural tectonic movement, with considering the Khamis Mushait event as an induced event because of the lake behind the Dam. Many previous seismic hazard assessment studies have been conducted in southern Saudi Arabia without considering these recent seismic sources. Thus, our study provides new information related to detecting of new active seismic sources, which contributes to updating studies of seismic risk assessment in this region. In addition, our study pushes us to establish other additional seismic stations around these new seismic sources. This in turn will play a pivotal role in controlling seismic sources and then reassessing the seismic hazard in southern Saudi Arabia.

A GIS-based time-dependent seismic source modeling of Northern Iran

The first step in any seismic hazard study is the definition of seismogenic sources and the estimation of magnitude-frequency relationships for each source. There is as yet no standard methodology for source modeling and many researchers have worked on this topic. This study is an effort to define linear and area seismic sources for Northern Iran. The linear or fault sources are developed based on tectonic features and characteristic earthquakes while the area sources are developed based on spatial distribution of small to moderate earthquakes. Time-dependent recurrence relationships are developed for fault sources using renewal approach while time-independent frequency-magnitude relationships are proposed for area sources based on Poisson process. GIS functionalities are used in this study to introduce and incorporate spatial- temporal and geostatistical indices in delineating area seismic sources. The proposed methodology is used to model seismic sources for an area of about 500 by 400 square kilometers around Tehran. Previous researches and reports are studied to compile an earthquake/fault catalog that is as complete as possible. All events are transformed to uniform magnitude scale; duplicate events and dependent shocks are removed. Completeness and time distribution of the compiled catalog is taken into account. The proposed area and linear seismic sources in conjunction with defined recurrence relationships can be used to develop time-dependent probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Northern Iran.

Cepstrum analysis of seismic source characteristics

This paper introduces the concept of cepstrum. By investigating the difference in source characteristics between earthquakes and explosions the paper infers the manifestation of source difference in various variable domains, and seeks for effective means to express such source difference. Extending the approach of source discrimination from time and frequency domain to the cepstrum domain, the paper proposes a method of cepstrum analysis for recognizing the characteristics of seismic sources and establishes criteria for identifying the type of seismic sources. Cepstrum analysis on some recent earthquakes and explosions has been made, and the result shows that the method is quite effective in practice.

Demarcation of potential seismic sources on integration of genetic algorithm and BP algorithm

In this paper potential seismic sources in coastal region of South China are identified by integration of genetic algorithm (GA) and back propagation (BP algorithm). GA is used for finding the best parameter combination rapidly in an infinite solution space for artificial neural networks (ANN). The results show that the distribution of potential seismic sources with different upper magnitude demarcated by this classifier is mostly satisfied the intrinsic relationship between seismic environment and earthquake occurrence, with less effect from subjective judgment of human being.

Artificial Neural Network Method Based on Expert Knowledge and Its Application to Quantitative Identification of Potential Seismic Sources

In this paper,an approach is developed to optimize the quality of the training samples in the conventional Artificial Neural Network(ANN)by incorporating expert knowledge in the means of constructing expert-rule samples from rules in an expert system,and through training by using these samples,an ANN based on expert-knowledge is further developed.The method is introduced into the field of quantitative identification of potential seismic sources on the basis of the rules in an expert system.Then it is applied to the quantitative identification of the potential seismic sources in Beijing and its adjacent area.The result indicates that the expert rule based on ANN method can well incorporate and represent the expert knowledge in the rules in an expert system,and the quality of the samples and the efficiency of training and the accuracy of the result are optimized.

On electro-acoustic characteristics of a marine broadband sparker for seismic exploration

The construction of major marine infrastructure projects and the exploration and development of deep-sea mineral resources require fine imaging of seabed strata and structures.The highresolution marine seismic exploration based on a high broadband sparker source is an important approach to reveal seabed stratum and reservoir structure,and identify geohazard.To optimize the performance of sparker seismic source,we investigated the electro-acoustic characteristics of spark discharge under conditions of different charging voltages and electrode numbers.Results show that the sound source level increased with the increase of the charging voltage,whereas the main frequency decreased when the charging voltage increases.In addition,it was found that the charging capacitance had more obvious influence on the main frequency than the sound source level did.Although the load energy decreased with increasing electrode number,the sound source level still increased but the main frequency decreased.Meanwhile,the primary to bubble(P/B)ratio increased with the increase of the electrode number.To gain a deeper insight into the electro-acoustic characteristics,we investigate the relationship between sound source level and power peak,from which a good correlation was observed.A more practical statistical analysis on the rise rate of current was processed,and a perfect logarithmic function was derived.Furthermore,we found that the main frequency was most possibly subjected to the electrical energy,especially the charging energy per electrode.The results indicate that the charging energy per electrode less than 10 J could increase the main frequency to above 300 Hz.At last,the main frequency could be reduced to 20 Hz when the charging energy of a single-electrode discharge was enhanced to over 4 kJ.This study shall be helpful in developing a sparker seismic source and improving the performance for marine engineering exploration and geohazard assessment.

Active source monitoring at the Wenchuan fault zone:coseismic velocity change associated with aftershock event and its implication

With the improvement of seismic observation system, more and more observations indicate that earthquakes may cause seismic velocity change. However, the amplitude and spatial distribution of the velocity variation remains a controversial issue. Recent active source monitoring carried out adjacent to Wenchuan Fault Scientific Drilling （WFSD） revealed unambiguous coseismic velocity change associated with a local M8 5.5 earthquake. Here, we carry out forward modeling using two-dimensional spectral element method to further investigate the amplitude and spatial distribution of observed velocity change. The model is well constrained by results from seismic reflection and WFSD coring. Our model strongly suggests that the observed coseismic velocity change is localized within the fault zone with width of ~ 120 m rather than dynamic strong ground shaking. And a velocity decrease of -2.0 % within the fault zone is required to fit the observed travel time delay distribution, which coincides with rock mechanical experiment and theoretical modeling.

Seismic source ruptures of several strong earth-quakes of 1989 in Sichuan region of China

Several strong earthquakes occurred in the regions of Batang and Xiaojin of Sichuan Province in 1989. This paper uses broadband waveform data from GDSN, by the forward trial-and-error modeling for multiple subevent, in terms of analysis on quasi-source time function or qSTF of station, to study source rupture characteristics of these strong earthquakes and to discuss tectonic background of earthquake occurrence regions preliminarily.

ComprehensiveanalysesofseismicsourcelayerinXingtaiandTangshanseismicregionsandtheconditionsofmediaab

Statistic analyses of sectional focal depth frequency relation for 1739 M S≥4.0 events in North China, 541 M S≥4.0 events in Xingtai seismic region and 999 M S≥4.0 events in Tangshan seismic region have been carried out for the first step of the study. Then the sectional focal depth frequency diagrams (H N diagram) for each region were obtained. The study shows that: (1) The intraplate earthquakes in North China occur within the continental crust, and are mainly concentrated within a certain depth range of the middle and upper crust, making up a seismic source layer; (2) The seismic source layer consists of a main layer and an auxiliary layer adjacent to it. The tops and bottoms of the main and auxiliary layers correspond to the G and C, as well as to B and G geologic boundaries respectively; (3) The H N diagrams for Xingtai and Tangshan seismic regions are significantly different from each other, indicating the regionality and localization of the seismic source layers; (4) DSS and MTS observations show that the regionality and localization of the seismic source layer depend mainly on the environment of the deep structures of the region; (5) The seismic source layer is a substance of medium layer, which can be related to the brittle ductile transition zone within the crust. The seismic source layer is also a stress conducting layer. As the media above and below this layer are subjected to failure or flowage, then the stress will concentrate in the stress conducting layer, in which the earthquake occurs.

Active source seismic imaging on near-surface granite body:case study of siting a geological disposal repository for high-level radioactive nuclear waste

In order to research whether it is suitable to set a geological disposal repository for high-level radioactive nuclear waste into one target granite body,two active source seismic profles were arranged near a small town named Tamusu,Western China.The study area is with complex surface conditions,thus the seismic exploration encountered a variettraveltimey of technical difculties such as crossing obstacles,de-noising harmful scattered waves,and building complex near-surface velocity models.In order to address those problems,techniques including cross-obstacle seismic geometry design,angle-domain harmful scattered noise removal,and an acoustic wave equation-based inversion method jointly utilizing both the and waveform of frst arrival waves were adopted.The fnal seismic images clearly exhibit the target rock’s unconformable contact boundary and its top interface beneath the sedimentary and weathered layers.On this basis,it could be confrmed that the target rock is not thin or has been transported by geological process from somewhere else,but a native and massive rock.There are a few small size fractures whose space distribution could be revealed by seismic images within the rock.The fractures should be kept away.Based on current research,it could be considered that active source seismic exploration is demanded during the sitting process of the geological disposal repository for nuclear waste.The seismic acquisition and processing techniques proposed in the present paper would ofer a good reference value for similar researches in the future.

Preface to the Special Issue on Advances in Seismic Exploration and Monitoring with Active Sources in China

Analyzing the information carriede by seismic waves is a major means for human beings to have an insight into the structure of the earth’s interior,and by using artificial seismic sources to excite seismic waves,we can obtain high-resolution images for the crustal and smaller scale medium.Artificial seismic exploration methods have been widely applied to fields such as

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment of Kazakhstan and Almaty city in peak ground accelerations

As for many post-soviet countries, Kazakhstan’s building code for seismic design was based on a deterministic approach. Recently, Kazakhstan seismologists are engaged to adapt the PSHA(probabilistic hazard assessment) procedure to the large amount of available geological, geophysical and tectonic Kazakh data and to meet standard requirements for the Eurocode 8. The new procedure has been used within National projects to develop the Probabilistic GSZ(General Seismic Zoning) maps of the Kazakhstan territory and the SMZ(Probabilistic Seismic Microzoning) maps of Almaty city. They agree with the seismic design principles of Eurocode 8 and are expressed in terms of not only seismic intensity,but also engineering parameters(peak ground acceleration PGA). The whole packet of maps has been developed by the Institute of Seismology, together with other Kazakhstan Institutions. Our group was responsible for making analysis in PGA. The GSZ maps and hazard assessment maps for SMZ in terms of PGA for return periods 475 and 2475 years are considered in the article.

Evaluation of the seismic hazard for 20 cities in Romania using Monte Carlo based simulations

This work focuses on the evaluation of the seismic hazard for Romania using earthquake catalogues generated by a Monte Carlo approach. The seismicity of Romania can be attributed to the Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic source and to 13 other crustal seismic sources. The recurrence times of large magnitude seismic events（both crustal and subcrustal）, as well as the moment release rates are computed using simulated earthquake catalogues. The results show that the largest contribution to the overall moment release for the crustal seismic sources is from the seismic regions in Bulgaria, while the seismic regions in Romania contribute less than 5% of the overall moment release. In addition, the computations show that the moment release rate for the Vrancea subcrustal seismic source is about ten times larger than that of all the crustal seismic sources. Finally, the Monte Carlo approach is used to evaluate the seismic hazard for 20 cities in Romania with populations larger than 100,000 inhabitants. The results show some differences between the seismic hazard values obtained through Monte-Carlo simulation and those in the Romanian seismic design code P100-1/2013, notably for cities situated in the western part of Romania that are influenced by local crustal seismic sources.

Study on the Source Characteristics of Downhole Airgun with Different Excitation Environments

The measurement of underground medium variation using a repeated artificial source has gradually become an important goal to pursue. In recent years,we have developed and improved a technology system with large capacity airguns excited in land reservoirs by transplanting marine seismic exploration technology. The excitation effect has a close relationship to airgun capacity,water environment,and excitation conditions. In view that large capacity airgun must be excited without a water environment,we expand the system to use in downhole. Based on the BHS-2200 LL downhole airgun with a capacity of250in3,this paper carries out a comparative analysis on the characteristics of an airgun source excited in 0. 2m- and 5. 0m-diameter wells,and the results show that:( 1) The dominant frequency of the airgun signal excited in a 5. 0m well is mainly from 10 Hz to40Hz,lower than that in a 0. 2m well,and the larger body of water is good for bubble oscillation.( 2) In terms of exciting energy,the signal excited in a 5. 0m well has stronger energy than in a 0. 2m well,with a difference of 1 order in magnitude,and the signal can be detected up to 9km excited in a 5. 0m well with a single shot.( 3) The airgun signal has good repeatability in both excitation wells. The downhole airgun excitation technology system has potential application in dynamic monitoring near a fault zone with a small scale range, exploration of oil and mineral resources, and modern urban geophysical environment.

Applications of seismic moment tensor inversion in fast response to earthquakes

Using the technique of seismic moment tensor inversion, the source mechanisms of 10 earthquakes with Ms5.2that occurred in China from November 1996 to January 1998 were determined rapidly. The determined resultswere sent as 'Bulletins of Source Mechanism Parameters of Earthquakes' to the Seismic Regime Guards' Office,China Seismological Bureau, and the relevant provincial seismological bureaus. These bulletins have played rolein the fast response to large earthquakes.

Seismic hazard analysis for central-western Argentina

In this study, we present a PSHA（Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis） for the city of San Juan, which is located in the central-western region of Argentina（30°S-35.5°S; 66.5°W-71°W）. In addition to crustal earthquakes provided by catalogues, recent paleoseismological and neotectonic investigations have permitted to consider events which occurred during the last 400 years.Four seismogenic sources that could cause damages to the studied site corresponding to Precordillera,Western Sierras Pampeanas, Basement of the Cuyana Basin and Cordillera Principal were identified.Based on the evaluation of the contribution of these sources,maximum moment magnitudes above 7.5（Mw） are expected.High values of SA（spectral acceleration）（0.2 and 1 s periods） and PGA（peak ground acceleration） were found in the city of San Juan, which suggests that it is located in a zone of high seismic hazard.Finally, the obtained SA spectra were compared with the seismic-resistant construction standards of Argentina INPRES-CIRSOC 103 [1]. Results suggest that for the city of San Juan and for a return period of475 years, it covers the seismic requirements of the structures.

Study of modern seismic zoning maps'accuracy(case for Eastern Uzbekistan)

Influence of uncertainty factors of input parameters on results of the estimation of seismic hazard has been researched. It is found that the largest deviations, from seismic hazard maps designed on the basis of average values of distribution of seismic mode and seismic load parameters, may arise due to the imprecise depth of earthquake sources （H）, uncertain estimations of seismic potential and slope of recurrence curve （v）. The contribution of such uncertainty factors, like imprecise definition of seismic activity Alo, incorrect choice of prevailing type of a motion in the source, using regional laws of attenuation of seismic load intensity in distance instead of local once are substantially small. For Eastern Uzbekistan, it was designed the seismic hazard map with the highest value which takes into account every possible factors of uncertainty in parameters of seismic mode and seismic load.

Interrelation among several important links in seismic risk analysis

In order to further reveal the interrelation among division of seismic statistical regions, delimitation of potential seismic sources and estimation of seismicity parameters, we select 21 representative sites located in different places within the range of 100°-120°E, 29°-42°N to study the influences of seismicity parameter uncertainties of statistical regions on seismic risk estimations of these sites in the inhomogeneous and homogeneous distribution models. Combining the results from this study and previous ones, we can see that different schemes for dividing seismic statistical regions can change the seismic data in a statistical region. The uncertain data and additional uncertainty in selecting time intervals for seismic statistics will result in uncertainty of seismicity parameters estimation in a statistical region. For the homogeneous model, the larger the variation of this uncertainty is, the greater the uncertain influence on the seismic risk estimation of a site will be, which means that the division of seismic statistical regions makes a major contribution. In a seismic statistical region, the delimitation of potential sources and variant weight assignment of spatial distribution functions can raise the estimated values of ground motion parameters in the place where great earthquake might occur and its vicinity. In these places, the influence of uncertainty in potential source delimitation is very obvious, especially on the absolute magnitude of ground motion parameters （e.g., intensity）, which means that the link of potential source delimitation makes a major effect. Generally speaking, the link of potential source delimitation affects mainly the sites located in the potential sources with the highest and second-high upper-limit earthquake magnitudes or in the vicinity of those with the highest upper-limit magnitude. While for the sites located in the potential sources with low upper-imit magnitudes, the uncertainty influence of statistical region division is larger than that of potential source delimitation.

Potential rupture surface model and its ap-plication on probabilistic seismic hazard analysis

Potential sources are simplified as point sources or linear sources in current probabilistic seismic hazard analysis （PSHA） methods. Focus size of large earthquakes is considerable, and fault rupture attitudes may have great influence upon the seismic hazard of a site which is near the source. Under this circumstance, it is unreasonable to use the simplified potential source models in the PSHA, so a potential rupture surface model is proposed in this paper. Adopting this model, we analyze the seismic hazard near the Chelungpu fault that generated the Chi-Chi （Jiji） earthquake with magnitude 7.6 and the following conclusions are reached. （1） This model is reasonable on the base of focal mechanism, especially for sites near potential earthquakes with large magnitude; （2） The attitudes of potential rupture surfaces have great influence on the results of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and seismic zoning.

Complex of general seismic zoning maps OSR-2017 of Uzbekistan

The quantitative assessment of seismic hazard of Uzbekistan has been examined,and new maps of seismic zoning has been developed.Quasihomogeneous seismological areas and seism-generating zones are considered as seismic sources,based on the analysis of seismotectonic data.The seismological parametrization of seismic sources has been carried out,including determination of parameters of earthquake’s reoccurrence for different power levels,seismic potential and a predominant type motion in the source of occurring earthquakes.The reoccurrence parameters of seismic sources were both determined by directly from Gutenberg-Richter dependence law and using summation and distribution methods.Setting were conducted separately for a sample of strong(M≥5)and weak(M<5)earthquakes.The seismic potential Mmax of seismic active zones was determined by seismological and seismotectonic methods.The predominant type of movement in the faulting for each seismic source is reverse fault.Regional regularities of seismic intensity attenuation with distance of different power levels are determined.The seismic hazard is expressed in points of a macro seismic scale,in velocities and accelerations of ground motions,and it is characterized by calculated seismic intensity with the set probability(P=0.9,P=0.95,P=0.98 and P=0.99)not exceed within 50 years in the constructed maps.In seismic zoning map,the seismic intensity was in average soil conditions.The developed complex of maps considers a number of uncertainties of the input parameters in relation to both incompleteness of initial seismological and seismotectonic data,as well the probabilistic nature of seismic process and seismic intensity.The factors of uncertainty of the input parameters are taken into account by constructing a logic tree.The constructed maps of the general seismic zoning are intended for imple menting antiseismic actions in Uzbekistan.