Study on Holocene Paleoearthquakes in Xizhang Trench on the Jiaocheng Fault Zone,Shanxi Province

Xizhang trench is located 10 km northwest of Taiyuan city, Shanxi Province, in front of a NNW-trending scarp of 4.6m height on the northern segment of the Jiaocheng fault zone. The dimensions of the trench are 108m in length, 8m in width, and 10m in depth. There are 18 horizons revealed in the trench. The upper strata are sandy loam; the upper strata of the downthrown block of the fault are gravels, the lower ones are an interbed of brown loam and sandy loam. The strata on the upthrown block of the fault are sandy loam containing gravel. The trench shows 3 fault planes, and the upper offset point on the fault plane is 1.5m below the ground surface, the newest dislocated stratum is （3.74±0.06） ka BP. The trench reveals a lot of deformation traces, such as fault planes, dislocated strata, colluvial wedges and formation tilting. The relationship between strata and faults in the trench shows that 3 paleoearthquake events have occurred at the Jiaocheng fault zone since the Early Holocene, they are about （3.74±0.06）- （3.06±0.26）ka BP, （8.35±0.09）ka- （3.74±0.06）ka BP, and（ 10.66±0.85） - （8.35±0.09）ka BP. The average interval among the events is 2.6 - 3.6ka. The minimum coseismic vertical displacements of the 3 events are 3.0m, 2.5m and 3.2m, respectively. The significance of Xizhang trench is that the Jiaocheng fault used to be active thousands of years ago, though there is no M ≥ 7.0 earthquake recorded in historical documents. Evidence of new Jiaocheng fault zone activity during the Holocene is important for the earthquake safety assessment of Taiynan city in the future.

Analysis of Digital Strong Motion Records of the M_S 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake by the Network of Shaanxi Province

Records of the May 12, 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan, Sichuan, earthquake from 27 stations of Shaanxi Digital Strong Motion Network are processed and analyzed, including baseline adjustment of acceleration traces, filtering, and calculations of velocities, displacements and acceleration response spectra. The results show that direction energy radiation of the large earthquake and horizontal inhomogeneous medium along the wave traveling path might both have some effect on the scattering degree of the attenuation of PGAH, besides influence of local site conditions. For the same intensity, the ratios of PGA/PGV are commonly small, on average about 5, which indicates that long period components are rich in ground motion. Intensities for most sites of the stations are within V -VII. The larger one among PGAE-W and PGAN-S is quite close to their PGAH, which is less than 10 % in relative deviation. The dominated waves are surface waves. The thicker the soil overburden is, the stronger the surface wave will be and the longer the shaking will last. Local site conditions have strong effects on ground motion, especially those of thick sediment filled-in basins, as they can significantly amplify long-period components.

The GIS and analysis of earthquake damage distribution of the 1303 Hongtong M=8 earthquake

The geography information system of the 1303 Hongtong M=8 earthquake has been established. Using the spatial analysis function of GIS, the spatial distribution characteristics of damage and isoseismal of the earthquake are studied. By comparing with the standard earthquake intensity attenuation relationship, the abnormal damage dis-tribution of the earthquake is found, so the relationship of the abnormal distribution with tectonics, site condition and basin are analyzed. In this paper, the influence on the ground motion generated by earthquake source and the underground structures near source also are studied. The influence on seismic zonation, anti-earthquake design, earthquake prediction and earthquake emergency responding produced by the abnormal density distribution are discussed.

Investigation and analysis of leveling deformation anomaly at Daixian station in Shanxi

The leveling measurements at Daixian station appeared increasing trend since March 25, 2013, which is credible, showing normal fault activity. According to the environmental survey, it contains some interference factors： first, the wind is big when the leveling measures in the afternoon, which has certain influence on the measurement results, but the impact is random and should be near the base value and not appear a trend. Second, the point BM3 was maintained during Sep. to Oct. in 2012 and occurred cracks in 2013, showing that the poor stability around the point. In addition, the change of recorded program is only to change the way of data record and can not affect the observation results during the same period.

Abnormal Earthquake Intensity Areas and Formation Mechanism of the Minxian-Zhangxian M_S6.6 Earthquake on July 22,2013,Gansu

On July 22, 2013, the Minxian-Zhangxian Ms6. 6 earthquake occurred on the east segment of Lintan-Dangchang fault. The analysis of digital elevation and remote sensing imaging shows that the east segment of Lintan-Dangchang fault is still active and the main thrust feature of the fault switches to left lateral slip. With the field research of intensity and damage, several abnormal areas of degree VIII spread in the isoseismal line of degree VII and some abnormal areas of degree VII spread in the isoseismal line of degree VI. These abnormal areas are distributed along the hanging wall of the fault in a width of 2km. The analysis based on the remote sensing and digital elevation model shows that the segment of the Lintan-Dangchang fault south of Minxian mainly slips in left literal. The fault movement made the soil soft in the fault zone. The earthquake motion propagated along the fault zone. Therefore the strong earthquake motion caused foundation failure in the soft soil along the fault zone and the abnormal intense areas of disaster formed.

Study on inelastic attenuation coefficient, site response and source parameters in Shanxi region

Based on 310 horizontal-component digital seismograms recorded at 14 seismic stations in Shanxi Digital Seis-mograph Network, the inelastic attenuation coefficient in Shanxi region is studied. By the methods of Atkinson and Moya, the site response of each station and several source parameters are obtained and the inversion results from both methods are compared and analyzed. The frequency-dependent inelastic attenuation coefficient Q is estimated as Q( f )=323.2 f 0.506. The site responses of 14 seismic stations do not show significant amplification, which is consistent with their basement on rock. We also found the dependence of corner frequency on seismic moment, seismic moment on stress drop, source radius on stress drop.

Study on inelastic attenuation coefficient, site response and source parameters in Shanxi region

Based on 310 horizontal-component digital seismograms recorded at 14 seismic stations in Shanxi Digital Seis-mograph Network, the inelastic attenuation coefficient in Shanxi region is studied. By the methods of Atkinson and Moya, the site response of each station and several source parameters are obtained and the inversion results from both methods are compared and analyzed. The frequency-dependent inelastic attenuation coefficient Q is estimated as Q( f )=323.2 f 0.506. The site responses of 14 seismic stations do not show significant amplification, which is consistent with their basement on rock. We also found the dependence of corner frequency on seismic moment, seismic moment on stress drop, source radius on stress drop.

Simulation by Dislocation Model and Anomaly Property Determination of Huge Leveling Deformation at Linfen Seismic Station

In this study,under the assumption that the two huge leveling deformation anomalies at Linfen seismic station were caused by the Luoyunshan fault( Tumen-Yuli section)movement, we computed the vertical deformation field distribution based on the rectangular fault dislocation model and measured the ground deformation field of the study area using D-InS AR technology. The results are as follows:( 1) Theoretically,the ground vertical deformation field caused by fault movement could be within the elliptical deformation area with the long axis parallel to the fault strike. The largest deformation region is located in the center of the area in the hanging wall of the fault,and the deformation gradually decreases to zero toward the periphery; the impact range induced by the two deformations is respectively as follows: The long axes are about 18 km and26km,the short axes are about 12 km and 17 km and the obvious deformation amplitude is about 1- 3mm and 4- 14 mm.( 2) The measured deformation field by D-InS AR shows that there is no continuous deformation area consistent with the fault strike,and only the presence of land subsidence possibly caused by groundwater excessive exploitation,with the deformation amplitude about 10- 12 mm and 1- 5mm.( 3) The measured deformation field is not consistent with the theoretical result on deformation area and amplitude,which indicates that the fault movement is not the main cause of Linfen huge leveling deformation,but may rather be because of local deformation of the soil layers in the hanging wall of the fault.( 4) By combining the fault dislocation model simulation with the D-InS AR technology measurement,we can determine effectively the nature of the anomalyof the huge cross-fault leveling deformation,thus provide scientific basis for verification of significant leveling anomalies.

Analysis on responding ability of well-aquifer system to precursors

Recording number of precursors from fourteen observation wells in Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing and Jiangsu region is analyzed and percentage of recording number of precursors to total number of earthquakes during the statistic years is presented, The relationship between characteristic parameters of well-aquifer system and responding ability to precursors is analyzed by the expression of amplification factor of well-aquifer system induced by Cooper et al. The results indicate that responding ability of well-aquifer system to precursors is related to inherent period of well aquifer, that is to say, the greater the inherent period is, the stronger the ability of recording precursor is. Re sponding ability of well-aquifer system to precursors is also related to ratio of transrnissivity to square of radius of wells, and the greater the ratio is, the stronger the responding ability is.

Attenuation of S wave in the crust of Ordos massif

We presented attenuation characteristics of S waves in the crust of Ordos massif. Using 487 pieces of digital oscil- lograms of 19 seismic events recorded by 32 seismologic stations located on Ordos massif and its surroundings, we have calculated the parameter of three-segment geometric attenuation and give the relation of inelastic attenuation Q value with frequency in the crust of Ordos massif, site responses of 32 stations, and source parameters of 19 events by the genetic algorithm. The results indicate that Q value (at 1 Hz) of S-wave in the crust of Ordos massif is much larger than that in the geologically active tectonic region. The site responses of the 32 stations in the high-frequency section do not show clear amplification effect except one or two stations, while in the low-frequency section, there is difference among the stations. The logarithmic value of seismic moment and the magnitude ML of 19 seismic events has a very good linear relationship.

Intracontinental basins and strong earthquakes

The September 17, 1303 Hongtong M=8 earthquake occurred in Linfen basin of Shanxi down-faulted basin zone. It is the first recorded M=8 earthquake since the Chinese historical seismic records had started and is a great earth-quake occurring in the active intracontinental basin. We had held a Meeting of the 700th Anniversary of the 1303 Hongtong M=8 Earthquake in Shanxi and a Symposium on Intracontinental Basins and Strong Earthquakes in Taiyuan City of Shanxi Province on September 17~18, 2003. The articles presented on the symposium discussed the relationships between active intracontinental basins of different properties, developed in different regions, in-cluding tensional graben and semi-graben basins in tensile tectonic regions, compression-depression basins and foreland basins in compressive tectonic regions and pull-apart basins in strike-slip tectonic zones, and strong earth-quakes in China. In this article we make a brief summary of some problems. The articles published in this special issue are a part of the articles presented on the symposium.

A Discussion on the Generality of Precursor Waves on Well Water Level Records

Taking five underground water level observation wells with high earthquake response capability and located in Shanxi,Hebei and Inner Mongolia as study objects,this paper studies and discusses the generality of precursor waves in well water levels before strong earthquakes. It is indicated that the precursor waves often happen before strong earthquakes,with the ratio of occurrence up to 65% ( 41 /63 ) ; the precursor waves have poor generality in different observation wells,which may be related to the different well-aquifer system of different observation wells and the different source parameters of earthquakes. Compared to the seismic water level fluctuations in a single well,the number of precursor wave times recorded in well water levels before strong earthquakes is slightly less than that of seismic water level fluctuations,with a ratio between 39. 7% and 50. 7%, respectively. The number of observation wells with precursor wave recordings before earthquakes accounts for up to 66. 7% of the total number of observation wells. The precursor wave in well water level records has a certain generality in terms of the number of times recorded and the spatial distribution,except for its manifestation characteristics.

Determination of the crustal structure and seismicity of the Linfen rift with S-wave velocity mapping

The Linfen rift is a Cenozoic extensional rift with significant seismicity and seismic hazards.Studies of this rift shed light on deep dynamic processes and seismogenic mechanisms relevant to crustal structure and seismic activity.We first conducted a joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion on waveform data collected from 27 broadband seismic stations to image the crustal S-wave velocity in the Linfen rift and its surroundings.We then relocated the source parameters for 10 earthquake events with depths>20 km and studied the relationship between crustal S-wave velocity and seismicity.The results show that low-velocity zones of different scales exist in the middle-lower crust,and that the depth of the seismogenic layer gradually increases from^25 km in the south to^34 km in the north,roughly corresponding to the bottom of the low-velocity zone.We found that most of the relocated earthquakes occurred in the low-velocity zone at depths of 18 km to 34 km,with the deepest at 32 km.Two of the greatest historic earthquakes,Linfen(Ms 7.75)in 1695 and Hongtong(Ms 8.0)in 1303,occurred at the bottom of the high-velocity zone at depths of 12 km to 18 km.Our results,combined with previous studies,suggest that the upwelling mantle material below the rift did not remarkably affect the velocity structure from the bottom of the seismogenic layer down to the uppermost mantle nor heat the crust.It is likely that neither crustal-scale faults nor mantle earthquakes exist in the Linfen rift.