The MW5.5 earthquake on August 6,2023,in Pingyuan,Shandong,China:A rupture on a buried fault

On August 6,2023,a magnitude MW5.5 earthquake struck Pingyuan County,Dezhou City,Shandong Province,China.This event was significant as no large earthquakes had been recorded in the region for over a century,and no active fault had been previously identified.This study collects 1309 P-wave arrival times and 866 S-wave arrival times from 74 seismic stations less than 200 km to the epicenter to constrain the spatial distribution of the mainshock and its 125 early aftershocks by the double difference earthquake relocation method,and selects 864 P-waveforms from 288 stations located within 800 km of the epicenter to constrain the focal mechanism solution of the mainshock through centroid moment tensor inversion.The relocation and the inversion indicate,the Pingyuan MW5.5 earthquake was caused by a rupture on a buried fault,likely an extensive segment of the Gaotang fault.This buried fault exhibited a dip of approximately 75°to the northwest,with a strike of 222°,similar to the Gaotang fault.The rupture initiated at the depth of 18.6 km and propagated upward and northeastward.However,the ground surface was not broken.The total duration of the rupture was~6.0 s,releasing the scalar moment of 2.5895×1017 N·m,equivalent to MW5.54.The moment rate reached the maximum only 1.4 seconds after the rupture initiation,and the 90%scalar moment was released in the first 4.6 s.In the first 1.4 seconds of the rupture process,the rupture velocity was estimated to be 2.6 km/s,slower than the local S-wave velocity.As the rupture neared its end,the rupture velocity decreased significantly.This study provides valuable insights into the seismic characteristics of the Pingyuan MW5.5 earthquake,shedding light on the previously unidentified buried fault responsible for the seismic activity in the region.Understanding the behavior of such faults is crucial for assessing seismic hazards and enhancing earthquake preparedness in the future.

The Activity of Liaocheng-Lankao Buried Fault During the Quaternary —An Important Buried Active Fault in the Eastern China Plain

On the basis of locating by the geochemical prospecting, shallow seismic sounding, drilling, geological profiling, and neogeochronological dating, we first found out the dislocation amount along the Liaocheng-Lankao buried fault since the Quaternary and the age of its latest activity phase and determined that the upper break point by the fault dislocation reaches 20 m below the surface. The latest activity phase was in the early Holocene and the fault is a shallow-buried active fault. An average dislocation rate along the fault is 0.12 nun/a since the Quaternary. Thus, it is a buried active fault with intermediate to strong movement strength in the eastern China.

The Method for Inferring a Buried Fault from Resistivity Tomograms and Its Typical Electrical Features

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has been used to experimentally detect shallow buried faults in urban areas in the past a few years, with some progress and experience obtained. According to the results from Olympic Park, Beijing, Shandong Province, Gansu Province and Shanxi Province, we have generalized the method and procedure for inferring the discontinuity of electrical structures (DES) indicating a buried fault in urban areas from resistivity tomograms and its typical electrical features. In general, the layered feature of the electrical structure is first analyzed to preliminarily define whether or not a DES exists in the target area. Resistivity contours in resistivity tomograms are then analyzed from the deep to the shallow. If they extend upward from the deep to the shallow and shape into an integral dislocation, sharp flexure (convergence) or gradient zone, it is inferred that the DES exists, indicating a buried fault. Finally, horizontal tracing is be carried out to define the trend of the DES. The DES can be divided into three types-type AB, ABA and AC. In the present paper, the Zhangdian-Renhe fault system in Zibo city is used as an example to illustrate how to use the method to infer the location and spatial extension of a target fault. Geologic drilling holes are placed based on our research results, and the drilling logs testify that our results are correct. However, the method of this paper is not exclusive and inflexible. It is expected to provide reference and assistance for inferring the shallow buried faults in urban areas from resistivity tomograms in the future.

Characteristics of Late Quaternary Activity of the Luhuatai Buried Fault Revealed by Drilling

The Luhuatai fault is one of the important buried tectonics in the Yinchuan basin. Based on the results of shallow seismic exploration, we conducted composite drilling section exploration and dating of the samples from boreholes. Some useful data was obtained, such as the depth of the upper breaking point, the latest activity age, displacement in the late Quaternary, and slip rates, etc. This study shows that the activity is different between the north and south segment along the Luhuatai fault. The north segment is a Holocene fault, while the south segment is a late mid-Pleistocene fault. From north to south along the north segment of Luhuatai fault, the activity has been enhanced, and the faulting is stronger in late Pleistocene than Holocene.

Study on Buried Faults in the Weifang Urban Area

Buried faults in Weifang city and surrounding areas are studied with geophysical surveys such as shallow seismic survey and electrical exploration, and verified with engineering drilling. Six main faults are detected including the Yishul-Tangtou fault, Tangwu-Gegou fault, Hanting fault and Weixian fault, etc. The latest active age is determined by OSL, TL and ESR dating techniques. No active fault has been found so far in the Weifang urban area. Our results provide a scientific basis for land use and urban planning.

Comprehensive Multi-Level Exploration of Buried Active Faults:an Example of the Yinchuan Buried Active Fault

The paper introduces the steps and methods of multi-approach, multi-level exploration of buried faults in thick Quaternary sediment regions by taking the test exploration of the Yinchuan active fault as example. Based on the comprehensive analyses of previous data, we choose the Xinqushao Village of Xingqing District of Yinchuan City as the test site for the comprehensive exploration. Firstly, we adopted shallow seismic investigation with group intervals of 10m, 5m and lm to gradually trace layer by layer the master fault of the Yinchuan buried fault from a deep depth to a shallow depth where drilling could be used. Then, with composite geological profile drilling, we determined the precise location and dip angle of the fault. The drilling show the buried depth of the upper offset point is 8.3m. Finally, large-scale trenching revealed that the actual buried depth of the upper offset point of the fault is 1.5m from the ground surface and there are paleoearthquake events of 5 stages. Combined with the preliminary result of corresponding sample age, we conclude the Yinchuan buried fault is a mid to late Holocene active fault.

Influence factors on the ground surface rupture zone induced by buried normal fault dislocation

The seismic disaster presents a zonal distribution along the fault strike.In this paper,rupture zone of ground surface soil caused by the uniform dislocation,inclined dislocation and warped dislocation of buried normal fault are studied by constituting a three-dimensional finite element model in Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis(ADINA).According to the critical value of surface rupture,the variational features and influencing factors of width and starting position of the"avoiding zone"in engineering construction are analyzed by using 96 model calculations.The main results are as follows:(1)Since the rupture zone of the ground surface soil from the point of mechanics is different from the"avoidance zone"from the point of engineering safety,the equivalent plastic strain and the total displacement ratio should be considered to evaluate the effect of the seismic ground movement on buildings.(2)During fault dislocation,plastic failure firstly occurred on the ground surface soil of the footwall side,and then the larger deformation gradually moved to the side of the hanging wall of the fault with the increase of fault displacement.(3)When the vertical displacement of buried fault reaches 3 m,the width of"avoiding zone"in engineering construction varies within the range of 10-90 m,which is most affected by the thickness of overlying soil and the dip angle of the fault.

Sequence Stratigraphy Study of the Late Quaternary Activity of the Nankou-Sunhe Fault in Its Northern Segment,Beijing

A test drilling exploration was implemented across the northern segment of the Nankou-Sunhe fault in the Beijing plain,and a combined borehole section was built by sequence stratigraphy,lithologic facies analysis,magnetic susceptibilityand absolute chronology to investigate the episodic activities of the fault since 60 ka BP. The results show that the active stages of the fault are 60 ka to 47 ka BP,36 ka to 28 ka BP,and 16 ka BP to present. Other intervals are relatively stable. The average vertical slip rate is 0.35 mm/a from 60 ka to 37 ka BP,0 mm/a from 37 ka to 32 ka BP,0.78 mm/a from 32 ka to 12 ka BP,and 0.35 mm/a since 12 ka BP. Compared with the conventional analyses on lithology and sedimentary facies,the sequence stratigraphy method has certain advantages in the studies of borehole strata comparison and episodic activity of buried faults.

Seismotectonics of the 26 November 2005 Jiujiang-Ruichang,Jiangxi,Ms 5.7 Earthquake

The 26 November 2005 Jiujiang-Ruichang, Jiangxi, Ms 5.7 earthquake occurred in a seismotectonic setting of moderate earthquake. The northwest-trending Xiangfan-Guangji fault （XFG） does not enter into the epicenter vicinity, but the northeast-trending Ruichang-Wuning fault （RWF） as a regional fault extends to the epicenter nearby, appearing as the Ruichang basin and its marginal faults. Tilting of the Ruichang Basin （RCB） in the Quaternary was controlled by the RCB southeast- marginal, buried fault （RSMBF）. Shallow geophysical survey reveals that the RSMBF caused an offset of the reflection layers. Drill hole columnar section demonstrates that there are about 10-12 m displacement in the lower section of the middle-Pleistocene Series along the RSMBF, but no disruption is found in the upper section of the middle-Pleistocene Series. The RSMBF not only has activity in the Quaternary, but also coincides with the nodal plane I from the focal mechanism of the Jiujiang- Ruichang Ms 5.7 earthquake. This evidence, including aftershock distribution and isoseismic lines, strongly suggests that the RSMBF might be the seismogenic tectonics. The RWF is discontinuous at the surface, and consists of three en echelon Quaternary basins, which are the Ruichang, Fanzhen and Wuning basins. Three moderate earthquakes, the Fanzhen ML 4.9 earthquake, the Yejiapu ML 4.1 earthquake and the Jiujiang-Ruichang Ms 5.7 earthquake, have happened in the basins since 1995. The seismogenic tectonics of the Jiujiang-Ruichang Ms 5.7 earthquake is not isolated, but may be controlled by the RWF at depth, the slip of which causes the accumulation of energy for earthquake occurrence.

Tectonic environment and cause of earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area

Seismotectonics in the Three Gorges reservoir area is investigated by using the P-wave tomography with earthquakes that occurred before the impoundment of the reservoir. The result indicates that most of these events occurred in or around the velocity-gradient belts between high-velocity and low-velocity anomalies. These belts have similar characteristics to buried-fauh zones. Stresses generated by movement of partially molten upper-mantle materials and thermal stress may have jointly contributed to the seismic activities along the faults and such buried faults, and possibly activated new earthquake ruptures.

Exploration of Suspected Surface Ruptures of the M_S8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake at Frontal Areas of Longmenshan Using Shallow Seismic Reflection

The great M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake on May 12,2008 was generated by abrupt faulting in the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault along the Longmenshan fault zone. The earthquake not only produced surface ruptures along the Yingxiu-Beichuan and Guanxian-Jiangyou faults,but also surface ruptures,arching of highway pavement,sand-boils and waterspouts in various degrees in areas such as Shifang and Mianzhu on the Chengdu Plain. To understand the shallow geological structures under the surface rupture zone,a 6350m long high-resolution shallow seismic reflection profile in near-EW direction was performed. This profile is located at Shigu town,Shifang city,where a suspected earthquake surface rupture zone was discovered. In this study,a group interval of 3m,shotpoint interval of 18m,and a 300-channel 25-fold observation system were used. In consideration of both near-surface reflections and dipping interface imaging,we adopted the split-spread geometry and asymmetrical zero-offset receiving technique. To better suppress random-noise and raise the signal-to-noise ratio of seismic data,30 times vertical stacking of vibrator signals was made for each common-shot gather after correlation of individual records. By using the above work method and spread geometry,we obtained high-resolution images of structures in the depth range of 15m～800m after data processing. The result shows the existence of buried thrust faults thrusting to the plain area and back-thrust faults under the surface rupture zone. It also shows that the activity of the buried thrust faults may be the main cause for folding and deformation in near-surface strata and coseismic surface rupturing.