Surface Rupture and Co-seismic Displacement Produced by the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of May ^(12)th,2008,Sichuan,China:Eastwards Growth of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

An earthquake of Ms 8 struck Wenchuan County, western Sichuan, China, on May 12^th, 2008 and resulted in long surface ruptures （〉300 km）. The first-hand observations about the surface ruptures produced by the earthquake in the worst-hit areas of Yingxiu, Beichuan and Qingchuan, ascertained that the causative structure of the earthquake was in the central fault zones of the Longmenshan tectonic belt. Average co-seismic vertical displacements along the individual fault of the Yingxiu-Beiehuan rupture zone reach 2.514 m and the cumulative vertical displacements across the central and frontal Longmenshan fault belt is about 5-6 m. The surface rupture strength was reduced from north of Beichuan to Qingchuan County and shows 2-3 m dextral strike-slip component. The Wenchuan thrust-faulting earthquake is a manifestation of eastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau under the action of continuous convergence of the Indian and Eurasian continents.

Dextral-Slip Thrust Faulting and Seismic Events of the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake,Longmenshan Mountains,Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau

Dextral-slip thrust movement of the Songpan-Garze terrain over the Sichuan block caused the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008 and offset the Central Longmenshan Fault （CLF） along a distance of -250 km. Displacement along the CLF changes from Yingxiu to Qingchuan. The total oblique slip of up to 7.6 m in Yingxiu near the epicenter of the earthquake, decreases northeastward to 5.3 m, 6.6 m, 4.4 m, 2.5 m and 1.1 m in Hongkou, Beichuan, Pingtong, Nanba and Qingchuan, respectively. This offset apparently occurred during a sequence of four reported seismic events, EQ1-EQ4, which were identified by seismic inversion of the source mechanism. These events occurred in rapid succession as the fault break propagated northeastward during the earthquake. Variations in the plunge of slickensides along the CLF appear to match these events. The Mw 7.5 EQ1 event occurred during the first 0-10 s along the Yingxiu-Hongkou section of the CLF and is characterized by 1.7 m vertical slip and vertical slickensides. The Mw 8.0 EQ2 event, which occurred during the next 10-42 s along the Yingxiu-Yanziyan section of the CLF, is marked by major dextralslip with minor thrust and slickensides plunging 25°-35° southwestward. The Mw 7.5 EQ3 event occurred during the following 42-60 s and resulted in dextral-slip and slickensides plunging 10° southwestward in Beichuan and plunging 73° southwestward in Hongkou. The Mw 7.7 EQ4 event, which occurred during the final 60-95 s along the Beichuan-Qingchuan section of the CLF, is characterized by nearly equal values of dextral and vertical slips with slickensides plunging 45°-50° southwestward. These seismic events match and evidently controlled the concentrations of landslide dams caused by the Wenchuan earthquake in Longmenshan Mountains.

The Energy Transformation and Efficiency of the May 12,2008 Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake

The energy transformation and efficiency is now a hot topic among researches of scientific drilling into fault zones （Tanaka et al., 2006; Ma et al., 2006）. This study conducted temperature measurements and fault gouge particle analysis of borehole WFSD-1 from the Wenchuan Earthquake Fault Science Drilling Project （WFSD）, and discussed the earthquake energy budget. The research progress is illuminated as follows.

Analysis of debris flow control effect and hazard assessment in Xinqiao Gully,Wenchuan M_(s)8.0 earthquake area based on numerical simulation

Xinqiao Gully is located in the area of the 2008 Wenchuan M_(s)8.0 earthquake in Sichuan province,China.Based on the investigation of the 2023"6-26"Xinqiao Gully debris flow event,this study assessed the effectiveness of the debris flow control project and evaluated the debris flow hazards.Through field investigation and numerical simulation methods,the indicators of flow intensity reduction rate and storage capacity fullness were proposed to quantify the effectiveness of the engineering measures in the debris flow event.The simulation results show that the debris flow control project reduced the flow intensity by41.05%to 64.61%.The storage capacity of the dam decreases gradually from upstream to the mouth of the gully,thus effectively intercepting and controlling the debris flow.By evaluating the debris flow of different recurrence intervals,further measures are recommended for managing debris flow events.

Airblast evolution initiated by Wangjiayan landslides in the M_(s)8.0 Wenchuan earthquake and its destructive capacity analysis

Airblasts,as one common phenomenon accompanied by rapid movements of landslides or rock/snow avalanches,commonly result in catastrophic damages and are attracting more and more scientific attention.To quantitatively analyze the intensity of airblast initiated by landslides,the Wangjiayan landslide,occurred in the Wenchuan earthquake,is selected here with the landslide propagation and airblast evolution being studied using FLUENT by introducing the Voellmy rheological law.The results reveal that:(1)For the Wangjiayan landslide,its whole travelling duration is only 12 s with its maximum velocity reaching 36 m/s at t=10 s;(2)corresponding to the landslide propagation,the maximum velocity,28 m/s,of the airblast initiated by the landslide also appears at t=10 s with its maximum pressure reaching594.8 Pa,which is equivalent to violent storm;(3)under the attack of airblast,the load suffered by buildings in the airblast zone increases to 1300 Pa at t=9.4 s and sharply decreased to-7000 Pa as the rapid decrease of the velocity of the sliding mass at t=10 s,which is seriously unfavorable for buildings and might be the key reason for the destructive collapse of buildings in the airblast zone of the Wangjiayan landslide.

Identifying drivers of urban landuse changes in the Wenchuan earthquake- affected area by using night-time light data

To learn the process of urban land evolution before and after an earthquake is vital to formulate the urban reconstruction control policies and recovery measures in the earthquake-stricken areas.However,spatiotemporal evolution and its driving factors of urban land in earthquake-prone areas remains limited due to the scarcity of ground observation data.This research,leveraging night-time light remote sensing imagery and land cover data,conducted a comprehensive analysis of the long-term evolution characteristics of urban land in earthquake-prone areas.It introduced methodologies for assessing the socio-economic impact and the primary natural environmental factors driving urban land evolution in these regions.To validate the proposed methods,the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake-affected area in China was selected as a representative study area.The results indicated that the average Digital Number(DN)values in socio-economically impacted areas showed a trend of rising,falling,and then rising again after the earthquake.DN values in three types of damaged areas including Type Ⅱ,Type Ⅲ,and Type Ⅳ exceeded pre-earthquake levels.The analysis of determinative factors influencing urban land evolution revealed that slope and elevation were key elements in controlling urban land expansion before the earthquake,whereas factors such as slope,elevation,lithology,and faults had a stronger influence on urban land expansion after the earthquake.It can be seen that,in view of the differences in the natural conditions of regions for post-disaster reconstruction,the local government need to actively adjust and adapt to urban spatial planning,so as to leverage the scale effect of large-scale inputs of funds,facilities,human resources and other factors after the disaster,thus enhancing resilience and recovery efficiency in response to disaster impacts.

Analysis of the Wenchuan Ms8.0 Earthquake's Co-seismic Stress and Displacement Change by Using the Finite Element Method

The variation of in situ stress before and after earthquakes is an issue studied by geologists. In this paper, on the basis of the fault slip dislocation model of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake, the changes of co-seismic displacement and the distribution functions of stress tensor around the Longmen Shan fault zone are calculated. The results show that the co-seismic maximum surface displacement is 4.9 m in the horizontal direction and 6.5 m in the vertical direction, which is almost consistent with the on-site survey and GPS observations. The co-seismic maximum horizontal stress in the hanging wall and footwall decreased sharply as the distance from the Longmen Shan fault zone increased. However, the vertical stress and minimum horizontal stress increased in the footwall and in some areas of the hanging wall. The study of the co-seismic displacement and stress was mainly focused on the long and narrow region along the Longmen Shan fault zone, which coincides with the distribution of the earthquake aftershocks. Therefore, the co-seismic stress only affects the aftershocks, and does not affect distant faults and seismic activities. The results are almost consistent with in situ stress measurements at the two sites before and after Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake. Along the fault plane, the co-seismic shear stress in the dip direction is larger than that in the strike direction, which indicates that the faulting mechanism of the Longmen Shan fault zone is a dominant thrust with minor strike-slipping. The results can be used as a reference value for future studies of earthquake mechanisms.

The maximum coseismic vertical surface displacement and surface deformation pattern accompanying the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake

The amount of coseismic deformation and its distribution of the Wenchuan earthquake provide important scientific bases for revealing the mechanisms of earthquake preparation and characterizing the rupture propagation of the Wenchuan earthquake. The previous studies have indicated that the earthquake ruptured the middle-to-north segment of the Longmenshan central fault and the middle segment of the Longmenshan range-front fault, which are characterized by two surface rupture zones of 240 km and 90 km in length, respectively. Based on the pre-earthquake information and photos of landforms and buildings obtained through ge-ologic and geomorphic survey of the area around Shaba Village of Beichuan County, Sichuan Province and the extensive interview with local villagers, we measured the displacements of the major terrain features and the dislocated buildings by total station instruments and differential GPS and obtained the maximum vertical displacement of 9±0.5 m and right-lateral displacement of 2±0.5 m around the Zou’s house in Shaba Village. Though the near-surface deformation exhibits a normal faulting around Shaba Village, the dynamic environment has not changed on the whole. The NW wall of the fault uplifted but without gravity gliding as normally occurring on the hanging wall of a normal fault, which proves that the 9±0.5 m displacement should be the maximum coseismic vertical displacement of the May 12, 2008 Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake.

Ground Surface Ruptures and Near-Fault,Large-Scale Displacements Caused by the Wenchuan Ms8.0 Earthquake Derived from Pixel Offset Tracking on Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

The 12 May 2008 Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake produced surface displacements along the causative fault, the Yingxiu-Beichuan Fault, which are up to several meters near the fault. Because of the large gradient, satellite synthetic aperture radar （SAR） interferometric data are strongly incoherent; the usual SAR interferometry method does not allow such displacements to be measured. In the present study, we employed another approach, the technique based on pixel offset tracking, to solve this problem. The used image data of six tracks are from the Advanced Land Observing Satellite, Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar （ALOS/PALSAR） dataset of Japan. The results show that the entire surface rupture belt is 238 km long, extending almost linearly in a direction of 42°north-east. It is offset left laterally by a north-west-striking fault at Xiaoyudong, and turns at Gaochuan, where the rupture belt shifts toward the south by 5 km, largely keeping the original trend. In terms of the features of the rupture traces, the rupture belt can be divided into five sections and three types. Among them, the Beichuan-Chaping and Hongkou-Yingxiu sections are relatively complex, with large widths and variable traces along the trend. The Pingtong-Nanba and Qingping-Jingtang sections appear uniform, characterized by straight traces and small widths. West of Yingxiu, the rupture traces are not clear. North of the rupture belt, surface displacements are 2.95 m on average, mostly 2-3.5 m, with 7-9 m the maximum near Beichuan. South of the rupture belt, the average displacement is 1.75 m, dominated by 1-2 m, with 3-4 m at a few sites. In the north, the displacements in the radar line of sight are of subsidence, and in the south, they are uplifted, in accordance with a right-slip motion that moves the northern wall of the fault to the east, and the southern wall to the west, respectively. Along the Guanxian-Jiangyou Fault, there is a uplift zone in the radar line of sight, which is 66 km long, 1.5-6 km wide, and has vertical displacements of approximately 2 m, but no observable rupture traces.

Preparatory mechanism of Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake evidenced by crust-deformation data

Some crustal-deformation data related to the Ms8.0 Wenchuan in 2008, was described and a model that is capable of explaining the observed deformation features is presented. The data include ： pre-earthquake uplift in an area south of the epicenter obtained by repeated-leveling measurements ; pre-earthquake horizontal deformation by GPS observation during two periods in Sichuan-Yunnan area;vertical deformation along a short cross-fault leveling line in the epicenter area; and co-seismic near-field vertical and horizontal crustal-move- ment data by GPS. The model is basically ＂elastic-rebound＂, but involves a zone between two local faults that was squeezed out at the time of earthquake. ：

Characteristics and factors that influenced damage to dams in the M_s 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake

Based on raw data from dams damaged in the Wenchuan earthquake, including many that were severely damaged, characteristics and factors that influenced the damage are discussed in this paper. Findings from this study include： severely damaged dams were densely distributed along the seismologic fault; small dams, especially small earth-rock dams, had the most serious damage that was caused by a variety of factors; the most serious damage was caused by seismic waves; damage was aggregated by aftershocks; and the extent of the damage patterns increased with the seismic intensity. Damage patterns varied in different intensity zones and cracking was the most common type of damage. Most of the dams had a good base with relatively high bearing capacity, and the walls of the earth-rock dams were mostly of clay soil. This type of base and body material mitigated some of the damage to dams. Reservoir maintenance and other factors also have a significant impact on the seismic safety of the dam. Finally, some recommendations to reduce seismic damage to dams are proposed.

Co-seismic Faults and Geological Hazards and Incidence of Active Fault of Wenchuan Ms 8.0 Earthquake,Sichuan,China

There are two co-seismic faults which developed when the Wenchuan earthquake happened. One occurred along the active fault zone in the central Longmen Mts. and the other in the front of Longmen Mts. The length of which is more than 270 kin and about 80 km respectively. The co-seismic fault shows a reverse flexure belt with strike of N45°-60°E in the ground, which caused uplift at its northwest side and subsidence at the southeast. The fault face dips to the northwest with a dip angle ranging from 50° to 60°. The vertical offset of the co-seismic fault ranges 2.5-3.0 m along the Yingxiu- Beichuan co-seismic fault, and 1.5-1.1 m along the Doujiangyan-Hanwang fault. Movement of the coseismic fault presents obvious segmented features along the active fault zone in central Longmen Mts. For instance, in the section from Yingxiu to Leigu town, thrust without evident slip occurred; while from Beichuan to Qingchuan, thrust and dextral strike-slip take place. Main movement along the front Longmen Mts. shows thrust without slip and segmented features. The area of earthquake intensity more than IX degree and the distribution of secondary geological hazards occurred along the hanging wall of co-seismic faults, and were consistent with the area of aftershock, and its width is less than 40km from co-seismic faults in the hanging wall. The secondary geological hazards, collapses, landslides, debris flows et al., concentrated in the hanging wall of co-seismic fault within 0-20 km from co-seismic fault.

Temporal variation of gravity field before and after Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake

Absolute and relative gravity data during 1998 to 2008 were used to study gravity field and temporal variation in the North-South seismic-belt region, and their correlation with seismic activities before and after Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake. The temporal variation of gravity field shows that the portentous information of the gravity field reflects the development and occurrence of earthquake more clearly. The variations of gravity field are inhomogeneous in the space-time distribution, and are associated with the development and occurrence of the Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake, also closely connected with active fault tectonics.

Anomalous tremor before 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake: a review

In this paper we give a review of several previously published papers on anomalous tremors observed before the 2008 Ms8.0 Weuchuan earthquake. Based on the observed time and frequency shifts between coastal and inland stations, we discussed some methods to distinguish different kinds of microseisms, and speculated that a pre-earthquake typhoon might have caused a ＂mainland-originated microseism＂ which in turn trig- gered the earthquake.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of VTEC anomalies before Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake

GPS and the COD VTEC data were studied in search of ionospheric VTEC changes in space and time that might be associated with the Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake on 12 May,2008. The result shows several significant anomalous decreases at 12：00 UT- 16：00 UT on April 29 and an anomalously increase at 14：00 UT - 18：00 UT on May 9. The anomalies had two humps, that were located on both sides of the geomagnetic equator and had a tendency of drifting towards the equator. Since the observed anomalies cannot be attributed to any other causes and since they occurred close to the time of the earthquake, we consider them to be possibly premonitory to the earthquake.

Co- and post-seismic vertical displacements of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake near Beichuan

Co- and post-seismic vertical displacements of the Wenchuan earthquake derived from two measurements in 2008 and 2010 along two partly-damaged leveling lines near the epicenter show the following features： Co-seismic displacement at Beichuan-Yingxiu fault was as large as 4. 711 m near Beichuan, where the maximum observed fault offset was 5.1 m. In contrast, the observed co-seismic offset of the Qingchuan fault in Pingwu County was only 0. 064 m. During 2008 - 2010, the post-seismic displacement rate was 5 - 27 mm/a near Beichuan-Yingxiu fault in Beichuan area, 20.6 mrn/a at Jiangyou-Guangyuan fault near Dakang, and only 0.2 - 1.3 mm/a at Qingehuan fault near Gucheng.

Mercury indicating inflow zones and ruptures along the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 earthquake fault

During the Wenchuan Fault Scientific Drilling Project,we determined the values of total mercury(HgT)and gaseous elemental mercury(GEM) from drilled cores and drilling mud,respectively.Geochemical analysis shows HgT values ranging from 0.24 to 6.45 ng/g for the Penguan complex and from 2.90 to 137.54 ng/g for T3 sediment.The average levels of HgT for the Penguan complex and T3 sediments are 1.81 ± 0.26 ng/g and23.96 ± 4.80 ng/g,respectively.Major anomalous peaks of HgT appear at depth of 614,731,993 and 1,107 m,which correspond to the long-term high seismic activity during crustal deformation in response to tectonic stresses.Gaseous elemental mercury dissolved in drilling mud was also analyzed.We found fluid inflow zones with high GEM at depths of 590-750 m,suggesting that fluid-filled ruptures exist in the LMS fault zone.It indicates that mercury provides geochemical evidence for inflow zones and ruptures/fault zones in the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 earthquake fault.

Simulation of co-seismic gravity change and deformation of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake

Surface co-seismic gravity changes and displacements caused by the Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake are calculated on the basis of the half-space dislocation theory and two fault models inversed, respectively, by Institute of Geophysics, CEA and USGS. The results show that 1 ） the dislocation consists of dip slip and rightlateral strike slip ;2 ）the co-seismic gravity change shows a four-quadrant pattern ,which is greatly controlled by the distribution of the vertical displacements, especially in the near-filed ; 3 ） the gravity change is generally less than 10 × 10^-8 ms^-2 in the far-field,but as high as several 100 × 10^-8 ms^-2 in the near-filed. These results basically agree with observational results.

Dynamic changes of gravity fields before and after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake(Ms8.0)

The pattern evolution and dynamic mechanism of the dynamic changes of regional gravity fields occurring before and after the Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake are analyzed, based on five epochs of 1998 -2007 mobile gravity data from the middle-south section of the north-south seismic belt, and two epochs of field research data collected after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in combination with GPS data, leveling observations, and geotectonic environment data. The regional dynamic gravity changes demonstrate the effects of the eastward flow of solid matter in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and the preparation of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake （2- 10 yr）. The two most meaningful gravity indicators of the Wcnchuan earthquake preparation are the positive （increasing） gravity changes occurring over many years in the southwest epicenter and the largescale gradient zone of gravity variation, with the cumulative difference between the two sides of the gradient zone of gravity exceeding 200 μGal. The positive gravity changes may facilitate a constant energy accumulation and the gradient belt may support seismic shear breakage. Overall, the gravity changes associated with the earthquake preparation indicate a pattern of accelerating increase-decelerating increase-earthquake occurrence. The Songpan-Ganzi block generally displays a negative gravity change, providing evidence for a local upwarp- ing of the deep crust-mantle and an interior expansion of the deep crust attributable to high temperatures. The viewpoint is consistent with the dilatant mechanism for earthquake preparation.

Study on crustal deformation of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake using wide-swath ScanSAR and MODIS

This paper presents a broad-range study of the co-seismic deformation field of Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake by ScanSAR interferometry. The results show co-seismic displacements ranging from - 19.8 on the footwall side of the seismogenic fault to 73.6 cm on the hanging-wall side, or from - 22.4 to 77.2 cm with atmospheric-delay correction by MODIS. These results differ from the GPS line-of-sight results by 4. 58 cm to 2.78 cm, respectively, on the average. We could not obtain the displacements near the earthquake-rupture zone due to incoherence problem.