Deep Seismogenic Environment in the Southern Section of the Longmenshan Fault Zone on the Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau and Lushan M_s 7.0 Earthquake

The 2,026 earthquake events registered by the Sichuan regional digital seismic network and mobile seismic array after the April 20th, 2013 Lushan earthquake and 28,188 pieces of data were selected to determine direct P waves arrival times. We applied the tomographic method to inverse the characteristics of the velocity structure for the three-dimensional （3D） P wave in the mid-upper crust of the seismic source region of the Lushan earthquake. The imaging results were combined with the apparent magnetization inversion and magnetotelluric （MT） sounding retest data to comprehensively study the causes of the deep seismogenic environment in the southern section of the Longmenshan fault zone and explore the formation of the Lushan earthquake. Research has shown that there are obvious differences in velocity structure and magnetic distribution between the southern and northern sections of the Longmenshan fault zone. The epicenter of the Lushan earthquake is located near the boundary of the high and low-velocity anomalies and favorable for a high-velocity section. Moreover, at the epicenter of the Lushan earthquake located on the magnetic dome boundary of Ya＇an, the development of high velocity and magnetic solid medium favors the accumulation and release of strain energy. Low- velocity anomalies are distributed underneath the are of seismogenic origin, The inversion results of the MT retest data after the April 20th Lushan earthquake also indicate that there a high-conductor anomaly occurs under the area of seismogenic origin of the Lushan earthquake, Therefore, we speculated that the presence of a high-conductivity anomaly and low-velocity anomaly underneath the seismogenic body of the Lushan earthquake could be related to the existence of fluids. The role of fluids caused the weakening of the seismogenic layer inside the mid-upper crust and resulted in a seismogenic fault that was prone to rupture and pIayed a triggering role in the Lushan earthquake.

Cenozoic Denudation and Vertical Faulting History of the Central Segment of the Longmenshan Thrust Belt

Objective The uplift process and uplift mechanism of the Tibetan Plateau has been a research focus among geologists in recent years. This work put emphasis on the Cenozoic exhumation histories of the blocks bounded by the major faults at the central segment of the Longmenshan thrust belt, and the vertical faulting history, including the starting time and the total vertical displacement, of the major faults. Then we quantitatively established a complete active process for the central segment of the Longmenshan thrust belt, combining with the previous geophysical data in the deep and geologcial data. This study is critical for deeply and completely understanding the Cenozoic uplift history of the Longmenshan, and also provides thermochronology constraints to the different models for the uplift of the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.