Fault plane parameters of Tancheng M81/2 earthquake on the basis of present-day seismological data

The great Tancheng earthquake of M81/2 occurred in 1668 was the largest seismic event ever recorded in history in eastern China. This study determines the fault geometry of this earthquake by inverting seismological data of present-day moderate-small earthquakes in the focal area. We relocated those earthquakes with the double-difference method and found focal mechanism solutions using gird test method. The inversion results are as follows： the strike is 21.6°, the dip angle is 89.5°, the slip angle is 170°, the fault length is about 160 km, the lower-boundary depth is about 32 km and the buried depth of upper boundary is about 4 km. This shows that the seismic fault is a NNE-trending upright right-lateral strike-slip fault and has cut through the crust. Moreover, the surface seismic fault, intensity distribution of the earthquake, earthquake-depth distribution and seismic-wave velocity profile in the focal area all verified our study result.

Region-time-length algorithm and its application to the study of intermediate-short term earthquake precursor in North China

The Region-Time-Length Algorithm (RTL algorithm) is introduced and improved in the paper. Compared with the original definition, the influence of rupture length on RTL function is emphasized and the weights of epicentral distance function, time function, and rupture length function are ensured to be equal. The retrospective examinations of RTL algorithm in North China have indicated that the anomalies obtained by the improved RTL algorithm show the short or intermediate-short term precursory features in most cases. There are two types of RTL anomalous patterns before the main shock. For the I-type, the variation pattern of the VRTL, numerical values of the VRTL(x, y, z, t) function, is complete and most of them have shown the changing pattern of rising from 0 turning dropping or dropping from 0 turning rising. For the II-type, the variation pattern of VRTL is not complete, which increases or decreases quickly from 0 and there is no evident turning, the main shock generally occurs in the short period around the peak VRTL. The rising of VRTL indicates an increase of seismic activity relative to the background level, which means the enhancement of seismic activity, while the dropping of VRTL indicates the decrease of seismic activity relative to the background level, which represents the seismic quiescence to a certain extent. According to statistical examination results of RTL algorithm in North China, the methods to distinguish the intermediate and short-term anomalies and to estimate the occurrence time of the coming main shock are given in the paper. For both I and II-type RTL anomalies, the R-value, i.e., the forecasting score, is about 0.6 and 0.3 for the 3 months forecasting period and about 0.7 and 0.4 for the 6 months forecasting period. The preliminary discussion is also made for the influences of characteristic time-span t0, characteristic distance r0, and threshold magnitude M0 on computation of VRTL, as well as some other significant problems in application.

A recent paleoearthquake on Qingfengling seismic fault of Tanlu fault zone

Introduction The Tanlu fault zone lies in the eastern China, which is an important huge active fault with a long history. It has experienced a complex generation and evolution process and affects significantly the regional structure, paleogeography, magma activity, minerogenesis and earthquake activity in the area. With a length of 2 400 km, the fault zone consists of 2-4 or more parallel faults of 10-40 km in width, cutting through different geotectonic elements in the eastern China （FANG et al, 1986）. On July 25 in 1668, an extraordinarily large earthquake of M=8.5 occurred on the Changyi-Dadian fault （F1） that is an embranchment of Tanlu fault zone, resulting in a surface rupture with a total length of 130 km （LI et al, 1994; CHAO et al, 1995）. The paleoseismic study reveals that 3 events with a magnitude equal to 8 occurred on the Changyi-Dadian fault. The recent event occurred 3 500 a ago and the reoccurrence interval is about 3 500 a （LIN and GAO, 1987）. During the Tancheng earthquake （on July 25, 1668）, the Anqiu-Juxian fault was not ruptured, which was a Late Pleistocene active fault （ZHENG et al, 1988; GAO et al, 1988; CHAO et al, 1994） and was doubted as the seismogenic fault of the M=7.0 Anqiu earthquake occurred in 70 BC by certain geologists （CHAO et al, 1994）.

Multifractal characteristics of spatiotemporal distribution of earthquakes in intraplate and interplate regions

This paper analyzes the multifractal characteristics of spatio-temporal distribution of generalized strain release of earthquakes （GSRE） occurred in the eastern and western Chinese mainland （as an instance of intraplate region）, Taiwan region and New Zealand （as an instance of interplate region）. The results show that the multifractal characteristics of GSRE are closely related to the geodynamic environment. For the temporal distribution of strong events, the clustering feature is more evident in the interplate regions than that in the intraplate regions, while for small and moderate events, this difference is ambiguous. For the spatial distribution of strong earthquakes, the clustering feature is usually clearer in the intraplate regions than that in the interplate regions, while for small and moderate events, the case is just opposite.

Dispersion attenuation structure of the crust around the Weifang-Jiashan segment of the Tanlu fault zone in North China

On the condition that the velocity ratio of compressive wave to shear wave is stable during the propagating process of seismic wave, this paper develops an estimation method for medium quality factor based on single station＇s travel time difference between direct S and P waves and the first period signal of direct P wave. 8 774 high SNR wave data altogether recorded by 75 stations are analyzed. The results show that： （1） under the normal regional stress field, the quality factors QmsP in the stable tectonic area are higher than that in the active tectonic area around the Weifang-Jiashan section and its surrounding area in the Tanlu fault zone; （2） in the Juxian-Tancheng section the seismic wave attenuation is relatively quick, and the media is relatively broken, suggesting no tectonic stress accumulation; （3） the Xinyi-Sihong section is currently locking and in accumulating elastic strain energy stage, which has the deep environment and conditions of strong earthquake generation similar to those of the 1668 M8.5 Tancheng strong earthquake.

Intrinsic and attenuative dispersion characteristics of direct P-waves in and near the source area of the 1999 MW7.6 Chi-Chi,Taiwan,earth-quake before and after the mainshock

Based on the measurement of the arrival time of maxima magnitude from band-pass filtering signals which were determined using a new Morlet wavelet multiple-filter method, we develop a method for measuring intrinsic and attenuative dispersion of the first cycle direct P-wave. We determine relative group delays of spectral components of direct P-waves for 984 ray paths from SML and ALS stations of the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau Seismic Network （CWBSN）. Using continuous relaxation model, we deduce a new transfer function that relates intrinsic dispersion to attenuation. Based on the genetic algorithm （GA）, we put forward a new inversion procedure for determining which is defined the flat part of quality factor Q（ω） spectrum, τ1 and τ2 parameters. The results indicate that ① The distribution of Om values versus epicentral distance and depth show that Qm values linearly increase with increasing of epicentral distance and depth, and Qm values is clearly independent of earthquakes magnitude; ② In the different depth ranges, Qm residual show no correlation with variations in epicentral distance. Some significant changes of Qm residual with time is likely caused by pre-seismic stress accumulation, and associated with fluid-filled higher density fractures rock volume in the source area of 1999 Chi-Chi Taiwan earthquake. We confirm that Qm residual with time anomaly appears about 2.5 years before the Chi-Chi earthquake; ③ A comparison of Qm residual for different depth range between SML and ALS stations show that the level of stress has vertical and lateral difference; ④ The area near observation station with both anomalously increasing and decreasing averaged Qm residual is likely an unstable environment for future strong earthquake occurrence. This study demonstrates the capability of direct P-waves dispersion for monitoring attenuation characteristics and its state changes of anelastic medium of the Earth at short propagation distance using seismograms recorded from very small events.

SiZer for exploration of inhomogeneous structure in temporal distribution of earth-quakes

In this paper, the inhomogeneous structure of generalized seismic strain release time series (GSSRTS) of earth- quakes in East, West China and their subtectonic regions as Xinjiang, Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau, Northeast China, North China, South China and Taiwan have been analyzed by using the method of significant analysis on zero crossings of derivatives (SiZer). Results show that when index η for estimating GSSRTS is close to zero and bandwidth is large enough, GSSRTSs feature significant increasing in Xinjiang, Northeast China, South China and Taiwan tectonic regions and decreasing in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan Platean) and North China tectonic regions from January 1, 1970 to January 1, 2000. While with the dwindling of bandwidth GSSRTSs in all the above tec- tonic regions characterize clustering, that is to say, significant increasing and decreasing emerge alternatively. When η is large enough, GSSRTSs would have no significant statistical variation in most of above tectonic regions except Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan Platean) and Taiwan where significant increasing or decreasing hold in several time intervals within limited bandwidths.

Spatial and temporal characteristics of acoustic emission activity during deforma-tion of rock samples with inhomogeneous fault under biaxial compression

The spatial and temporal distributions of acoustic emission （AE） during the deformation of samples containing an inhomogeneous fault have been studied under biaxial compression. The results show that the fault strength and the duration from loading to failure increase and the failure mode changes from abrupt instability to gradual failure with increase of lateral stress σ2. The pre-setting fault and its heterogeneity play an important role in controlling AE spatial distribution during the deformation. The basic pattern of AE spatial distribution is controlled by the pre-setting fault, especially the parts with inhomogeneous strength and the strong segment, and the localization of fracturing starts from the positions with inhomogeneous strength, With increase of σ5, the dense AE distribution area spreads from the positions with inhomogeneous strength to the whole strong segment gradually. AE temporal sequence is significantly affected by σ2. The fault shows abrupt instability in final failure, which occurs on a background of ＂enhancement-quiescence＂ in microfracturing activity at lower σ2. At higher σ5, the fault shows gradual failure, and AE occurrence rate increases continuously and AER increase exponentially before and after the failure, The effect of σ2 on b-value is also remarkable, b-value shows precursory decrease in the weakening stage when fault behavior is abrupt instability, but it shows balanced change when fault behavior is gradual failure,

Upper mantle convection beneath northwest China and its adjacent region driven by density anomaly

We assume that the density anomalies, which are transformed from seismic tomography data, are corresponding to temperature distribution in a convective mantle. We take density anomalies as the driving force for mantle convection and solve the basic equation with given boundary conditions in a wave-number domain by using the FFT arithmetic. Using the physical model of upper mantle convection and the seismic tomography data supplied by XU et al, we calculated upper mantle convection beneath northwestern China and adjacent region. The flow patterns in the upper mantle show that there are upward and divergent flows in the basin regions, such as Tarim, Qaidam, Junggar and Kazakhstan, where the lithosphere is thin. There are downward and convergent flows in the mountain regions, such as Tianshan, Kunlun and Qilian, where the lithosphere is thick. In addition, because of the divergent flow under the Tarim Basin the upper mantle material in this region is driven southward to the north part of Tibetan Plateau and northward to Tianshan Mountain. Maybe, it is one of the reasons for the recent uplift of the Tianshaa Mountain.