The seismicity in the middle section of the Altyn Tagh Fault system revealed by a dense nodal seismic array

The left-lateral Altyn Tagh Fault(ATF) system is the northern boundary of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, separating the Tarim Basin and the Qaidam Basin. The middle section of ATF has not recorded any large earthquakes since1598 AD, so the potential seismic hazard is unclear. We develope an earthquake catalog using continuous waveform data recorded by the Tarim-Altyn-Qaidam dense nodal seismic array from September 17 to November23, 2021 in the middle section of ATF. With the machine learning-based picker, phase association, location, match and locate workflow, we detecte 233 earthquakes with M_L-1–3, far more than 6 earthquakes in the routine catalog. Combining with focal mechanism solutions and the local fault structure, we find that seismic events are clustered along the ATF with strike-slip focal mechanisms and on the southern secondary faults with thrusting focal mechanisms. This overall seismic activity in the middle section of the ATF might be due to the northeastward transpressional motion of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau block at the western margin of the Qaidam Basin.

Shear wave splitting analysis of local earthquakes from dense arrays in Shimian,Sichuan

The Shimian area of Sichuan sits at the junction of the Bayan Har block.Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block,and Yangtze block,where several faults intersect.This region features intense tectonic activity and frequent earthquakes.In this study,we used local seismic waveform data recorded using dense arrays deployed in the Shimian area to obtain the shear wave splitting parameters at 55 seismic stations and thereby determine the crustal anisotropic characteristics of the region.We then analyzed the crustal stress pattern and tectonic setting and explored their relationship in the study area.Although some stations returned a polarization direction of NNW-SSE.a dominant polarization direction of NW-SE was obtained for the fast shear wave at most seismic stations in the study area.The polarization directions of the fast shear wave were highly consistent throughout the study-area.This orientation was in accordance with the direction of the regional principal compressive stress and parallel to the trend of the Xianshuihe and Daliangshan faults.The distribution of crustal anisotropy in this area was affected by the regional tectonic stress field and the fault structures.The mean delay time between fast and slow shear waves was 3.83 ms/km.slightly greater than the values obtained in other regions of Sichuan.This indicates that the crustal media in our study area had a high anisotropic strength and also reveals the influence of tectonic complexity resulting from the intersection of multiple faults on the strength of seismic anisotropy.

3D S-wave velocity structure of the Ningdu basin in Jiangxi province inferred from ambient noise tomography with dense array

The Ningdu basin,located in southern Jiangxi province of southwest China,is one of the Mesozoic basin groups which has exploration prospects for geothermal energy.A study on the detailed velocity structure of the Ningdu basin can provide important information for geothermal resource exploration.In this study,we deployed a dense seismic array in the Ningdu basin to investigate the 3D velocity structure and discuss implications for geothermal exploration and geological evolution.Based on the dense seismic array including 35 short-period(5 s-100 Hz)seismometers with an average interstation distance of~5 km,Rayleigh surface wave dispersion curves were extracted from the continuous ambient noise data for surface wave tomographic inversion.Group velocity tomography was conducted and the 3D S-wave velocity structure was inverted by the neighborhood algorithm.The results revealed obvious low-velocity anomalies in the center of the basin,consistent with the low-velocity Cretaceous sedimentary rocks.The basement and basin-controlling fault can also be depicted by the S-wave velocity anomalies.The obvious seismic interface is about 2 km depth in the basin center and decreases to 700 m depth near the basin boundary,suggesting spatial thickness variations of the Cretaceous sediment.The fault features of the S-wave velocity profile coincide with the geological cognition of the western boundary basincontrolling fault,which may provide possible upwelling channels for geothermal fluid.This study suggests that seismic tomography with a dense array is an effective method and can play an important role in the detailed investigations of sedimentary basins.

Determination of the local magnitudes of small earthquakes using a dense seismic array in the Changning-Zhaotong Shale Gas Field,Southern Sichuan Basin

With the development of unconventional shale gas in the southern Sichuan Basin,seismicity in the region has increased significantly in recent years.Though the existing sparse regional seismic stations can capture most earthquakes with ML≥2.5,a great number of smaller earthquakes are often omitted due to limited detection capacity.With the advent of portable seismic nodes,many dense arrays for monitoring seismicity in the unconventional oil and gas fields have been deployed,and the magnitudes of those earthquakes are key to understand the local fault reactivation and seismic potentials.However,the current national standard for determining the local magnitudes was not specifically designed for monitoring stations in close proximity,utilizing a calibration function with a minimal resolution of 5 km in the epicentral distance.That is,the current national standard tends to overestimate the local magnitudes for stations within short epicentral distances,and can result in discrepancies for dense arrays.In this study,we propose a new local magnitude formula which corrects the overestimated magnitudes for shorter distances,yielding accurate event magnitudes for small earthquakes in the Changning-Zhaotong shale gas field in the southern Sichuan Basin,monitored by dense seismic arrays in close proximity.The formula is used to determine the local magnitudes of 7,500 events monitored by a two-phased dense array with several hundred 5 Hz 3 C nodes deployed from the end of February 2019 to early May 2019 in the Changning-Zhaotong shale gas field.The magnitude of completeness(MC)using the dense array is-0.1,compared to MC 1.1 by the sparser Chinese Seismic Network(CSN).In addition,using a machine learning detection and picking procedure,we successfully identify and process some 14,000 earthquakes from the continuous waveforms,a ten-fold increase over the catalog recorded by CSN for the same period,and the MC is further reduced to-0.3 from-0.1 compared to the catalog obtained via manual processing using the same dense array.The proposed local magnitude formula can be adopted for calculating accurate local magnitudes of future earthquakes using dense arrays in the shale gas fields of the Sichuan Basin.This will help to better characterize the local seismic risks and potentials.

Estimating the site effects in Luoyang basin using horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method from a short-period dense array

The influence of local site effects on seismic ground motions is an important issue in seismic hazard assessment and earthquake resistant design. Determining site effects in densely populated cities built on basins can help to reduce the earthquake hazard. Site effects of Luoyang basin are estimated by the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio(HVSR) method using ambient noise records from a short-period dense array. The sites in Luoyang basin are sorted into three types according to the pattern of the HVSR curves. There are cases with a single clear peak, two clear peaks, and an unclear low frequency peak or multiple peaks, which correspond to there being one large impedance contrast interface, two large interfaces, and a moderate one beneath the sites, respectively. The site effects characterized by fundamental frequency from HVSR curves are affected by underlying sedimentary layers and depth of sedimentary basement. According to our results, the existence of thick sediment layer obviously lowers the fundamental frequency to the period range from 2 to 4 s in the downtown area of Luoyang city. The ground motion will amplify when through the sites and the buildings with height of 20–50 floors can resonate at the similar frequency domain. Site effects estimation using HVSR method from a short-period dense array is an effective technique in areas of moderate seismic risk where strong motion recordings are lacking, such as the Luoyang basin.

Shallow velocity structure of the Luoyang basin derived from dense array observations of urban ambient noise

Determining the shallow structure of a sediment basin is important when evaluating potential seismic hazards given that such basins can significantly amplify seismic energy. The Luoyang basin is located in the western He’nan uplift and is a Meso-Cenozoic depression basin. To characterize the shallow structure of the basin, we develop a model of the shallow high-resolution three-dimensional(3D)shear-wave velocity structure of the basin by applying ambient noise tomography to a dense array of 107 portable digital seismometers deployed over the basin. More than 1,400 Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves for periods in the range 0.5–5 s are extracted. The 3D variations of shear-wave velocity in the shallow crust are inverted using a direct surface-wave tomographic method with period-dependent ray tracing, with all the surface-wave group-velocity dispersion data being inverted simultaneously. The results show that in the shallow crust of the study area, the velocity distribution corresponds to surface geology and geological features. The Luoyang basin exhibits a low shear-wave velocity feature that is consistent with the distribution of sediment in the region,while the Xiongershan and Songshan uplifts exhibit higher shear-wave velocity structures. The results provide a shallow high-resolution 3D velocity model that can be used as a basis for simulation of strong ground motion and evaluation of potential seismic hazards.

A pilot project of ambient noise tomography on a dense seismic array in Ji'nan urban area

In this study, we conducted ambient noise tomography(ANT), with 33-day data, to investigate the nearsurface shear-velocity structure in downtown Ji’nan, Shandong Province, China. The cross-correlation functions with quiet clear Rayleigh waves are obtained with more symmetrical energy distribution which indicates that strong human activities, such as moving vehicles and municipal engineering construction, can produce approximately isotropic distribution of noise sources for high-frequency signals. The direct surfacewave tomographic method with period-dependent ray-tracing is used to invert all surface-wave dispersion data in the period band 0.2–1.5 s simultaneously for 3D variations of shear-velocity structure. The study result can help us better understand the local geologic structures, evaluate the distribution and geometry of the fracture-karst media, and assess hazards of the concealed active fault and its effect on the springs in the future.

Analysis of One-Dimensional Compression under a Wide Range of Stress with Densely Arrayed BPM

In this paper,the densely arrayed bonded particle model is proposed for simulation of granular materials with discrete element method(DEM)considering particle crushing.This model can solve the problem of pore calculation after the grains are crushed,and reduce the producing time of specimen.In this work,several one-dimensional compressing simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of particle crushing on mechanical properties of granular materials under a wide range of stress.The results show that the crushing process of granular materials can be divided into four different stages according to er-logσy curves.At the end of the second stage,there exists a yield point,after which the physical and mechanical properties of specimens will change significantly.Under extremely high stress,particle crushing will wipe some initial information of specimens,and specimens with different initial gradings and void ratios present some similar characteristics.Particle crushing has great influence on grading,lateral pressure coefficient and compressibility of granular materials,and introduce extra irreversible volume deformation,which is necessary to be considered in modelling of granular materials in wide stress range.

Topography effect on ambient noise tomography using a dense seismic array

With the rapid increase of dense seismic array deployment, more and more ambient noise studies have been applied on short period surface waves tomography. For arrays with inter-station distance of several hundred meters,the effect of surface topography has to be considered. In this study, we investigate topography effect on ambient noise surface wave tomography using synthetic data from different topographic models. Our travel times are synthetized considering surface topography, and shear wave inversions are performed by incorporating and not incorporating topography respectively. Our inversion results suggest that topography does affect subsurface shear wave velocity inversion. If topography is not considered, although the pattern of the structure may be recovered reasonably well, the depth distribution of velocity structure can be distorted. The maximum distortion depth is generally correlated with the relief of the topography and the amplitude of the velocity anomalies. Finally, our example of real data inversion in a mountain area demonstrates good correlation between shear velocity and the geological settings, as well as the core sample in that area.

Preface to the special issue of Dense Array Seismology

Both earthquake seismology and structural seismology rely on observations, which in turn contribute critically to the development of seismology, especially in recent years.In order to understand specific geologic structures and interior processes of the Earth, seismic arrays are widely

Quick Phase Identification for Dense Seismic Array with Aid from Long Term Phase Records of Co-located Sparse Permanent Stations

The phase identification and travel time picking are critical for seismic tomography,yet it will be challenging when the numbers of stations and earthquakes are huge.We here present a method to quickly obtain P and S travel times of pre-determined earthquakes from mobile dense array with the aid from long term phase records from co-located permanent stations.The records for 1768 M≥2.0 events from 2011 to 2013 recorded by 350 ChinArray stations deployed in Yunnan Province are processed with an improved AR-AIC method utilizing cumulative envelope and rectilinearity.The reference arrivals are predicted based on phase records from 88 permanent stations with similar spatial coverage,which are further refined with AR-AIC.Totally,718573 P picks and 512035 S picks are obtained from mobile stations,which are 28 and 22 times of those from permanent stations,respectively.By comparing the automatic picks with manual picks from 88 permanent stations,for M≥3.0 events,81.5%of the P-pick errors are smaller than 0.5 second and 70.5%of S-pick errors are smaller than1 second.For events with a lower magnitude,76.5%P-pick errors fall into 0.5 second and 69.5%S-pick errors are smaller than 1 second.Moreover,the Pn and Sn phases are easily discriminated from directly P/S,indicating the necessity of combining traditional auto picking and integrating machine learning method.

Illuminating high-resolution crustal fault zones using multi-scale dense arrays and airgun source

High-resolution imaging of fault zone structure and its temporal changes can not only advance our understanding of earthquake physics,but is also critical for better seismic hazard preparation and mitigation.In the past a few years,we deployed multi-scale dense arrays across the Chenghai fault system in Binchuan,Yunnan,China.The first array consisted of 381 intermediate-period three-component seismometers with an average station spacing of~2 km.The array has been deployed in the field for~3 months in 2017 and recorded numerous local and teleseismic earthquakes.Travel time analyses based on teleseismic earthquakes and an airgun source in the region indicated clear signature of low-velocity fault zones in the southern branch of the Chenghai fault system.In 2018 we deployed two other linear arrays using the same instruments with much smaller inter-station spacing,e.g.30-50 m,across the southern branch the Chenghai fault.The profile lengths were 8 and 5 km,respectively.Record sections of the airgun source on the two linear arrays clearly marked a low-velocity zone(LVZ)within the southern array but no such signature in the northern array,suggesting along-strike variation of the LVZ.Although the instruments within our dense arrays had an intermediate frequency band,we demonstrated that they were capable of characterizing crustal structure with techniques commonly applied to broadband signals such as receiver functions.To our best knowledge,this was the first time to have multi-scale across-fault dense arrays with three-component seismometers in such apertures.These results lay out the pavement to comprehensively investigate fault zone structures as well as to derive subsurface structural changes using dense arrays and the airgun source.

Receiver function imaging of dense seismic array and deep dynamic mechanism beneath the eastern South China

The Mesozoic tectonic framework of the eastern South China is mainly controlled by subduction,turning toward,and rollback of the Pacific Plate.Recent studies of receiver function imaging and ambient noise tomography have revealed the“Yshaped”thinnest crustal belt in the eastern South China under the overall extension of the lithosphere.However,the deep dynamic environment and formation mechanisms of the thin crustal belt remain debatable.Here we obtained high-resolution images of the crustal thickness and Poisson’s ratio in the eastern South China Block applying the recently proposed H-κ-c receiver function method,using data recorded by 305 dense portable broadband stations and 219 permanent stations surrounding.Additionally,we discussed the deep dynamic formation mechanism of the“Y-shaped”thinnest crustal belt coupled with two common conversion point stacked images at key locations.Results show that the average crustal thickness of the study area is 33 km(thin crust)and the average Poisson’s ratio is 0.24(low ratio).The overall crustal thinning toward the continental margin is likely because eastern South China was in a back-arc extension environment,which was induced by the rollback of the subducted plate in the Early Cretaceous.The crustal thickness of the“Y-shaped”thinnest crustal belt is<30 km,which is 3-5 km thinner than that outside the zone.The eastern branch is distributed along the trajectory of Nanchang-Ji’an-Ganzhou-Shaoguan-Guangzhou,and the western branch is around the Jianghan-Xiangzhong Basin,both of which intersect in Nanling.The eastern branch of the thin crustal zone indicates the potential location of the Pacific subduction slab breakoff,and the formation mechanism may be related to the interaction of deep-shallow processes,including the upwelling of mantle heat flow through the slab window and transtensional pre-existing faults.We developed a dynamic model that combines subduction-breakoff-rollback processes of the Paleo-Pacific Plate and accompanying deep fluid upwelling to explain the regional extension of the South China lithosphere,the formation mechanism of the thinnest crustal belt,and the distribution of granitic plutons.

Remnants of the amalgamation of the east and west Cathaysia blocks revealed by a short-period dense nodal array

The Cathaysia block located at the southeast South China block(SCB)is considered formed by the amalgamation of the east and west Cathaysia blocks along the Gaoyao-Huilai and Zhenghe-Dapu deep faults(here referred as GHF and ZDF,respectively).Although the extension of the ZDF to the northeast,which represents the amalgamation of the two sub-blocks has been confirmed,the development of the GHF to the southwest remains to be verified.To better constrain the detailed deep structure beneath the southwest Cathaysia,which hold great significance for revealing the evolution of the SCB,a linear seismic array with 331 nodal geophones was deployed across the Sanshui basin(SSB).Combining with the regional 10 permanent stations(PA),we obtained two profiles with teleseismic P-wave receiver function stacking.The most obvious feature in our results is the ascending Moho towards the coastal area,which is consistent with the passive margin continental and extensional tectonic setting.The stacking profile from the dense nodal array(DNA)shows that the Moho is offset beneath the transition zone of the Nanling orogeny and SSB.We deduce that this offset may be casued by the deep extension of the GHF,which represents the remnants of the amalgamation of the Cathaysia block.From the other evidences,we infer that the widespread and early erupted felsic magmas in the SSB may have resulted from lithospheric materials that were squeezed out to the surface.The relative higher Bouguer gravity and heat flow support the consolidation of magmas and the residual warm state in the shallow crustal scale beneath the SSB.The sporadic basaltic magmas in the middle SSB may have a close relation to deep extension of the GHF,which serves as a channel for upwelling hot materials.

Multiple seismological evidences of basin effects revealed by Array of Binchuan(ABC), northwest Yunnan, China

Dense array seismology, which is characterized by large number, densely deployed autonomous geophone/seismographs, has received great concerns worldwide recently, especially after the great success of dense array in Long Beach. One of the biggest curiosity is that if the great success in Long Beach is replicable in China. Hence, we analyze the seismic records from a dense array in Binchuan basin, Yunnan province, which consists of three-component short-period seismographs of three most common domestic models. The Binchuan basin is located near the intersection between the Chenghai-Binchuan fault and the Red River fault,with the latter being the major fault accommodating significant tectonic deformation resulting from eastern extrusion of the Tibetan plateau. Both faults pose serious seismic threats to local residents in Binchuan basin. Basinrange differences, faults, local earthquakes, and a Fixed Airgun Seismic Transmitting Station(FASTS), make the Binchuan basin a perfect experiment site for dense array experiment. The array is named Array of Binchuan(ABC)and the main target is imaging the shallow crustal structure,especially the structure of the basin. To examine the monitoring capability of ABC, we analyze the seismograms to check if they can reveal the basin, the most significant geological feature in the area. Power spectral density analysis,travel time and amplitude analysis of FASTS signals, and amplitude analysis of earthquakes and noise cross-correlation functions are used in the analysis. All the results show correlation with the basin and clear difference between basin and non-basin area. Therefore, the preliminary results support that the ABC has the potential to provide constraints on local structures.

Cenozoic magmatic activity and oblique uplifting of the Ailao Mountain: Evidence from a short-period dense seismic array

Geological studies show that the southern part of Ailaoshan-Red River shear zone(ALSRRSZ)has experienced complex metallogenic processes and multi-stage non-uniform uplifting,called oblique uplifting since the Cenozoic.To detect the deep structure and geodynamic background beneath Daping,Chang’an and other gold and polymetallic deposits in this area,we carried out a high-density short-period seismic array survey in southern Yunnan province.The array used is approximately240 km long with an interval of 500 m between two adjacent stations.Based on the data collected by the array,we used H-κstacking and common conversion point(CCP)methods of receiver functions to reveal the fine crustal structure beneath this array,which was located from Lvchun(western end)to the east and ended in Maguan.The three main conclusions are as follows.(1)The average crustal thickness is approximately 37 km and the Vp/Vsratio is 1.75.However,the thickness and Vp/Vsratio of the Ailao Mountain are rather greater or higher than those of the western Lanping-Simao Basin and eastern South-China block.These results may indicate that the crust is rich in ferromagnesian minerals or has a thermal fluid anomaly after orogenic movement.(2)There are two obvious inclined interfaces beneath the Ailao Mountain in the mid-upper crust,which suggests that strong deformation occurred there during the orogenic period.Some evidences,such as the weak converted-wave Pms phase from the Moho,low P-wave velocities of the upper mantle,high surface heat flow values,and generally developed hot springs,indicate that a strong crust-mantle interaction exists in the southern segments of the Ailaoshan-Red River shear zone.These interactions include a diapir of mantle-sourced magma(stronger in the east than that in the west),lateral collision from the Indian Plate,and the differential uplift caused by the strike-slip movement of the Red River Fault.All of above deep processes led to the Cenozoic oblique uplifting of Ailao Mountain.(3)By combining the location of the deposits on the surface,characteristics of the average crustal Vp/Vsratio,hypocenters of the small earthquakes along the research profile,Moho shape,and horizontal variations of the Pms phase amplitudes,we speculate that the Ailaoshan Fault was the upgoing conduit for metallogenic magma and played a significant role in the Cenozoic development of the multiform metal deposits around the Ailao Mountain area.

Fractional beamforming of dense spacing array for time-frequency mix

The model of time-frequency mixed processing and the towing experimental results airs discussed in the paper for the fractional beamforming of a dense spacing array. The results show that the theoretical model is in agreement with the experimental results and it can.be realized easily in the engineering mode. The Performance Figure of the experimental subarray system is increased about 17 dB in comparison with that of traditional array with halfwavelength spacing between elements under the same conditions, when the flow noise is a dominant component in the background noise received by a sub-array.

Recent advances in earthquake monitoring I:Ongoing revolution of seismic instrumentation

Seismic networks have significantly improved in the last decade in terms of coverage density,data quality,and instrumental diversity.Moreover,revolutionary advances in ultra-dense seismic instruments,such as nodes and fiber-optic sensing technologies,have recently provided unprecedented high-resolution data for regional and local earthquake monitoring.Nodal arrays have characteristics such as easy installation and flexible apertures,but are limited in power efficiency and data storage and thus most suitable as temporary networks.Fiber-optic sensing techniques,including distributed acoustic sensing,can be operated in real time with an in-house power supply and connected data storage,thereby exhibiting the potential of becoming next-generation permanent networks.Fiber-optic sensing techniques offer a powerful way of filling the observation gap particularly in submarine environments.Despite these technological advancements,various challenges remain.First,the data characteristics of fiber-optic sensing are still unclear.Second,it is challenging to construct software infrastructures to store,transfer,visualize,and process large amount of seismic data.Finally,innovative detection methods are required to exploit the potential of numerous channels.With improved knowledge about data characteristics,enhanced software infrastructures,and suitable data processing techniques,these innovations in seismic instrumentation could profoundly impact observational seismology.

A real-time AI-assisted seismic monitoring system based on new nodal stations with 4G telemetry and its application in the Yangbi M_(S) 6.4 aftershock monitoring in southwest China

A rapidly deployable dense seismic monitoring system which is capable of transmitting acquired data in real time and analyzing data automatically is crucial in seismic hazard mitigation after a major earthquake.However,it is rather difficult for current seismic nodal stations to transmit data in real time for an extended period of time,and it usually takes a great amount of time to process the acquired data manually.To monitor earthquakes in real time flexibly,we develop a mobile integrated seismic monitoring system consisting of newly developed nodal units with 4G telemetry and a real-time AI-assisted automatic data processing workflow.The integrated system is convenient for deployment and has been successfully applied in monitoring the aftershocks of the Yangbi M_(S) 6.4 earthquake occurred on May 21,2021 in Yangbi County,Dali,Yunnan in southwest China.The acquired seismic data are transmitted almost in real time through the 4G cellular network,and then processed automat-ically for event detection,positioning,magnitude calculation and source mechanism inversion.From tens of seconds to a couple of minutes at most,the final seismic attributes can be presented remotely to the end users through the integrated system.From May 27 to June 17,the real-time system has detected and located 7905 aftershocks in the Yangbi area before the internal batteries exhausted,far more than the catalog provided by China Earthquake Networks Center using the regional permanent stations.The initial application of this inte-grated real-time monitoring system is promising,and we anticipate the advent of a new era for Real-time Intelligent Array Seismology(RIAS),for better monitoring and understanding the subsurface dynamic pro-cesses caused by Earth's internal forces as well as anthropogenic activities.

Experiments on Exploration of Shallow Fine Structures and the Construction of the 1-D Velocity Model in the Pingtan Island,Fujian

112 short-period seismographs were set up in the 400 km^2 area of Pingtan Island and its surrounding areas in Fujian.The combined observations of the airgun source and ambient noise source were carried out using a dense array to receive the 387 airgun signals excited around the island and one month of continuous ambient noise recording.The 1-D P-wave and S-wave shallow velocity model of Pingtan Island is obtained by the inversion of the airgun body wave’s first arrival time data,and the reliability of the velocity model is verified by using the surface wave phase velocity dispersion curve,which can provide initial model for subsequent 3-D imaging.The experimental results show that this experiment is a successful demonstration of local scale green non-destructive detection,which can provide basic data for shallow surface structure research and strong vibration simulation of the Pingtan Island.