Remarks on Urban Active Fault Exploration and Assessment of Fault Activity

to the practice of urban active fault exploration and associated fault activity assessment conducted in recent years, this paper summarizes the problems encountered in geological, geomorphological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, and proposes the following means and suggestions to solve these problems. To determine the most recent faults or fault zones, emphasis should be placed on identifying the youngest active faults and offset geomorphology. To understand the history of faulting and to discover the latest offset event, it is suggested that geophysical prospecting, drilling and trenching be conducted on one pro/de. Because of significant uncertainties in late Quaternary dating, we advise systematic sampling and the use of multiple dating methods. Shallow seismic reflection has been proven to be the most useful method in urban active fault exploration. However, there is a pressing need to increase the quality of data acquisition and processing to obtain high resolution images so as to enhance our ability to identify active faults. The combination of seismic P-wave reflection and S-wave reflection methods is proved to be a powerful means to investigate the tectonic environments of the deep crust.

Fission Track Method to Date Fault Activity—As Exemplified by the Three Gorges Dam Area of the Yangtze River Valley, China

The Xiannushan and Jiuwanxi are the two major fracture belts adjacent to the Three Gorges Dam Site. Apatites are selected from fracture clay and fracture\|cliff rock in the fracture belts and examined with the fission track dating method. Our study shows that the Xiannushan and Jiuwanxi fracture belts were tectonically active at 0.60±0.04Ma and 0.29±0.04Ma ago, respectively. Their ages are close to those obtained by the U\|series method.

New Evidence of Late Quaternary Activity on the Xinyi-Wuhe Segment of the Tancheng-Lujiang Fault Zone

The Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone has great influence in eastern China. Studies have shown obvious signs of neotectonic activities on the Xinyi-Wuhe segment of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone. In this study,on the basis of the previous work,many seismological surveys are made along the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone and trenches are excavated in key sites.Combined with the analysis of the seismic activities along the fault,the fault movement features and future seismic risk are discussed. Much first-hand information obtained in the paper can provide an important reference value for the study of large earthquake recurrence rules and the mid and long-term earthquake prediction on the Xinyi-Wuhe segment of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone.

Active Depths of Main Faults in the Ying-Qiong Basin Investigated by Multi-Scale Wavelet Decomposition of Bouguer Gravity Anomalies and Power Spectral Methods

The Ying-Qiong Basin is located on the northwestern margin of the South China Sea and at the junction of the South China Block and the Indochina Block.It is characterized by complex geological structures.The existing seismic data in the study area is sparse due to the lack of earthquake activities.Because of the limited source energy and poor coverage of seismic data,the knowledge of deep structures in the area,including the spatial distribution of deep faults,is incomplete.Contrarily,satellite gravity data cover the entire study area and can reveal the spatial distribution of faults.Based on the wavelet multi-scale decomposition method,the Bouguer gravity field in the Ying-Qiong Basin was decomposed and reconstructed to obtain the detailed images of the first-to sixth-order gravitational fields.By incorporating the known geological features,the gravitational field responses of the main faults in the Ying-Qiong Basin were identified in the detailed fields,and the power spectrum analysis yielded the depths of 1.4,8,15,26.5,and 39 km for the average burial depths of the bottom surfaces from the first-to fifth-order detailed fields,respectively.The four main faults in the Yinggehai Basin all have a large active depth range:fault A(No.1)is between 5 and 39 km,fault B is between 26.5 and 39 km,and faults C and D are between 15 and 39 km.However,the depth of active faults in the Qiongdongnan Basin is relatively shallow,mainly between 8 and 26.5 km.