Understanding the scaling relation of damage zone width with displacement of faults is important for predicting subsurface faulting mechanisms and fluid flow processes. The understanding of this scaling relationship i...Understanding the scaling relation of damage zone width with displacement of faults is important for predicting subsurface faulting mechanisms and fluid flow processes. The understanding of this scaling relationship is influenced by the accuracy of the methods and types of data utilized to investigate faults. In this study, seismic reflection data are used to investigate the throw and damage zone width of five strike-slip faults a ecting Ordovician carbonates of the Tarim intracraton basin,NW China. The results indicate that fault slips with a throw less than 200 m had formed wide damage zones up to 3000 m in width. Also, damage zone width is found to have both a positive correlation and a power-law relation with throw of two orders of magnitude, with a ratio of these values varying in a range of 2–15. The relationship between throw and damage zone width is not a simple power-law and changes its slope from small to larger size faults. The results indicate that throw scales well with damage zone width for the studied faults, and hence these can be used to predict fault geometries in the Tarim Basin. The study of the wide carbonate damage zones presented here provides new insights into scaling of large-size faults, which involve multiple faulting stages.展开更多
Induced seismicity is strongly related to various engineering projects that cause anthropogenic in-situ stress change at a great depth.Hence,there is a need to estimate and mitigate the associated risks.In the past,va...Induced seismicity is strongly related to various engineering projects that cause anthropogenic in-situ stress change at a great depth.Hence,there is a need to estimate and mitigate the associated risks.In the past,various simulation methods have been developed and applied to induced seismicity analysis,but there is still a fundamental diference between simulation results and feld observations in terms of the spatial distribution of seismic events and its frequency.The present study aims to develop a method to simulate spatially distributed on-fault seismicity whilst reproducing a complex stress state in the fault zone.Hence,an equivalent continuum model is constructed,based on a discrete fracture network within a fault damage zone,by employing the crack tensor theory.A fault core is simulated at the center of the model as a discontinuous plane.Using the model,a heterogeneous stress state with stress anomalies in the fault zone is frst simulated by applying tractions on the model outer boundaries.Subsequently,the efective normal stress on the fault plane is decreased in a stepwise manner to induce slip.The simulation result is validated in terms of the b-value and other seismic source parameters,hence demonstrating that the model can reproduce spatially and temporally distributed on-fault seismicity.Further analysis on the parameters shows the variation of frequency-magnitude distribution before the occurrence of large seismic events.This variation is found to be consistent with feld observations,thus suggesting the potential use of this simulation method in evaluating the risk for seismic hazards in various engineering projects.展开更多
基金partly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41472103)Technology Major Project(2016ZX05004001)
文摘Understanding the scaling relation of damage zone width with displacement of faults is important for predicting subsurface faulting mechanisms and fluid flow processes. The understanding of this scaling relationship is influenced by the accuracy of the methods and types of data utilized to investigate faults. In this study, seismic reflection data are used to investigate the throw and damage zone width of five strike-slip faults a ecting Ordovician carbonates of the Tarim intracraton basin,NW China. The results indicate that fault slips with a throw less than 200 m had formed wide damage zones up to 3000 m in width. Also, damage zone width is found to have both a positive correlation and a power-law relation with throw of two orders of magnitude, with a ratio of these values varying in a range of 2–15. The relationship between throw and damage zone width is not a simple power-law and changes its slope from small to larger size faults. The results indicate that throw scales well with damage zone width for the studied faults, and hence these can be used to predict fault geometries in the Tarim Basin. The study of the wide carbonate damage zones presented here provides new insights into scaling of large-size faults, which involve multiple faulting stages.
文摘Induced seismicity is strongly related to various engineering projects that cause anthropogenic in-situ stress change at a great depth.Hence,there is a need to estimate and mitigate the associated risks.In the past,various simulation methods have been developed and applied to induced seismicity analysis,but there is still a fundamental diference between simulation results and feld observations in terms of the spatial distribution of seismic events and its frequency.The present study aims to develop a method to simulate spatially distributed on-fault seismicity whilst reproducing a complex stress state in the fault zone.Hence,an equivalent continuum model is constructed,based on a discrete fracture network within a fault damage zone,by employing the crack tensor theory.A fault core is simulated at the center of the model as a discontinuous plane.Using the model,a heterogeneous stress state with stress anomalies in the fault zone is frst simulated by applying tractions on the model outer boundaries.Subsequently,the efective normal stress on the fault plane is decreased in a stepwise manner to induce slip.The simulation result is validated in terms of the b-value and other seismic source parameters,hence demonstrating that the model can reproduce spatially and temporally distributed on-fault seismicity.Further analysis on the parameters shows the variation of frequency-magnitude distribution before the occurrence of large seismic events.This variation is found to be consistent with feld observations,thus suggesting the potential use of this simulation method in evaluating the risk for seismic hazards in various engineering projects.
