Preliminary Study on Characteristics of Source Parameters of Earthquakes in the Nuozhadu Reservoir Area,Yunnan Province

We computed source parameters for 143 earthquakes with M_L≥ 1. 0 occurring from January,2011 to March,2014 using waveform data recorded by the Nuozhadu and Jinghong Reservoir Seismic Networks. Then,the variation of seismic activity and the characteristics of source parameters before and after the impoundment of the reservoir were investigated. The results show that:( 1) the seismic activity increased obviously after the impoundment,especially during the 3- 4 months after impoundment;( 2) the focal depths of the earthquakes occurring in the reservoir area are shallower than the earthquakes occurring outside the reservoir area in the initial stage of impoundment,but after a time,the difference was gradually reduced;( 3) corner frequency varies with the seismic moment and the log-linear relationship is more obvious after impounding;( 4)stress drop and apparent stress increase with increasing seismic moment,moreover they are lower for the earthquakes occurring in the reservoir area after impounding than those occurring outside the reservoir area or before impounding with the same seismic moment;( 5) the effect of reservoir impoundment on an earthquake can reach a depth of 10 km,and the maximum effect is seen at a depth of 3km- 6km,and the differences of seismic activity and average apparent stress between the inside and outside of the reservoir are significant.

Variational characteristics of shear-wave splitting on the 2001 Shidian earthquakes in Yunnan, China

In 2001 three earthquakes occurred in Shidian in Yunnan Province, which were the MS=5.2 on April 10, the MS=5.9 on April 12 and the MS=5.3 on June 8. Based on the data from the station Baoshan of Yunnan Telemetry Digital Seismograph Network, the variational characteristics of shear-wave splitting on these series of strong earthquakes has been studied by using the systematic analysis method (SAM) of shear-wave splitting. The result shows the time delays of shear-wave splitting basically increase with earthquake activity intensifying. However the time delays abruptly decrease immediately before strong aftershocks. It accords with the stress relaxation before earthquakes, which was found recently in study on shear-wave splitting. The result suggests it is significant for reducing the harm degree of earthquakes to develop the stress-forecasting on earthquake in strong active tectonic zones and economic developed regions or big cities under the danger of strong earthquakes.

Variational characteristics of shear-wave splitting on the 2001 Shidian earthquakes in Yunnan, China

In 2001 three earthquakes occurred in Shidian in Yunnan Province, which were the MS=5.2 on April 10, the MS=5.9 on April 12 and the MS=5.3 on June 8. Based on the data from the station Baoshan of Yunnan Telemetry Digital Seismograph Network, the variational characteristics of shear-wave splitting on these series of strong earthquakes has been studied by using the systematic analysis method (SAM) of shear-wave splitting. The result shows the time delays of shear-wave splitting basically increase with earthquake activity intensifying. However the time delays abruptly decrease immediately before strong aftershocks. It accords with the stress relaxation before earthquakes, which was found recently in study on shear-wave splitting. The result suggests it is significant for reducing the harm degree of earthquakes to develop the stress-forecasting on earthquake in strong active tectonic zones and economic developed regions or big cities under the danger of strong earthquakes.

Analysis of Ground Motion Attenuation Characterization for Moderate Earthquakes in the Sichuan-Yunnan Region

The ground motion attenuation models for PGA,PGV and response spectrum at rock sites and soils sites are derived separately from the digital strong motion records of moderate earthquakes in the Sichuan-Yunnan region after 2007. By comparison with Yu Yanxiangs attenuation model for rock sites in western China,reliability of the model is verified for moderate earthquake. According to the distribution of strong motion data against magnitude and epicentral distance,the applicability and reliability of the results in this paper are discussed.

Sociological Features of the Casualties from the 1996 M_S7.0 Lijiang Earthquake, Yunnan Province

A statistics analysis was conducted on the basic information about fatalities from the Lijiang MS7.0 earthquake in 1996. The factors include age, gender, educational background, occupation, cause of death, death place, etc. We found that even though deaths caused by the Lijiang earthquake had some common features with those from earthquakes in other places in China, it also showed some specific features because of the multiracial and economically-underdeveloped situation of Lijiang area. The results reached in the paper can serve as a reference for studying the features of casualties caused by future strong earthquakes in Yunnan, and for the delicate and human-oriented emergency treatment.

Study of the Seismicity of Strong Earthquakes in the Yunnan Area

Yunnan is located in the east margin of the collision zone between the India Plate and the Eurasian Plate on the Chinese Continent, where crustal movement is violent and moderate-strong earthquakes are frequent. In addition, the area features marked active block movement. Therefore, Yunnan is a perfect place for research on strong earthquake activity. Through the study on the temporal and spatial distribution of the M≥6.7 earthquakes and the related earthquake dynamics in Yunnan in the last century, we conclude that the four seismically active periods, which are characterized by alternative activity in the east and the west part of Yunnan, possibly result from a combination of active and quiescent periods in each of the east and west part. And for every 100 years, there may be a period in which strong earthquakes occur in the east and west parts simultaneously. In addition, the seismicity of strong earthquakes in Yunnan corresponds well to that in the peripheral region. The seismicity of the great earthquakes in the Andaman-Myanmar Tectonic Arc belt indicates, to some extent, the beginning of a seismically active period in Yunnan. The seismicity of strong earthquakes in east Yunnan is closely related to that in Sichuan. Strong earthquakes in Sichuan often occur later than those in Yunnan. Furthermore, in the east part of Yunnan, the three procedures including continuous occurrence of moderate-strong earthquake, quiescent period, and the occurrence of the first strong earthquake may be the style of the beginning of the earthquake active period. The above cognition is helpful to the study of earthquake prediction, seismogenic mechanism, and the dynamics of the plate margin in Yunnan.

Research on the Characteristics of Anomalies in ELF Electromagnetic Observations in Yunnan Province

Located in an earthquake-prone region,the geological structures in Yunnan Province are complex. Taking into account that Tonghai county is located in the intersection of Xiaojiang fault and Honghe fault, an ACF-4M ELF electromagnetic instrument was installed at the Tonghai seismic station,which has produced continuous reliable data. The author collected the data and information for the year 2009 and 2010,and performed analysis on the variation characteristics of both geomagnetic fields and electrical resistivity. The result shows that the 1Hz and 39Hz electromagnetic power spectra are 0. 2 to 1. 4 orders of magnitude higher than the normal values immediately before many earthquakes. The anomalies are represented by the abrupt changes of the electric and magnetic field power spectra in earthquake and aftershock sequences,and the amplitude of change is related to the size of earthquake magnitude and epicentral distance. The electrical resistivity also obviously changes. Therefore, further research on the anomalous characteristics of ELF electromagnetic data will be meaningful to the future use of this instrument in earthquake prediction.

Numerical simulation of dynamic Coulomb stress changes induced by M6.5 earthquake in Wuding, Yunnan and its relationship with aftershocks

Based on the discrete wavenumber method, we calculate the fields of dynamic Coulomb rupture stress changes and static stress changes caused by M6.5 earthquake in Wuding, and study their relationship with the subsequent after- shocks. The results show that the spatial distribution patterns of the positive region of dynamic stress peak value and static stress peak value are similarly asymmetric, which are basically identical with distribution features of aftershock. The dynamic stress peak value and the static stress in the positive region are more than 0.1 MPa and 0.01 MPa of the triggering threshold, respectively, which indicates that the dynamic and static stresses are helpful for the occurrence of aftershock. This suggests that both influences of dynamic and static stresses should be con- sidered other than only either of them when studying aftershock triggering in near field.

Shear-wave splitting beneath Yunnan area of Southwest China

Systematic analyses of seismic data recorded by the Yunnan regional seismograph network reveal significant crustal and upper mantle anisotropy. Splitting of the S phase of local earthquakes and teleseismic SKS, PKS, and SKKS phases indicates time-delays from 1.60 ms/km to 2.30 ms/km in the crust, and from 0.55 s to 1.65 s in the upper mantle which corresponds to an The polarization orientations of fast shear waves in direction, and the mantle anisotropy has a nearly styles and mechanisms exist between the crust and anisotropic layer with a thickness about between 55 165 km. the crust are complicated with a predominantly north-south west-east direction. Our results show different deformation upper mantle.

Late Quaternary Large Earthquakes on the Western Branch of the Xiaojiang Fault and Their Tectonic Implications

The Xiaojiang fault is a major active left-lateral fault along the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.The largest historical earthquake in Yunnan Province, with a magnitude 8 and a mean coseismic left-lateral displacement of ~ 6.9 m, occurred on the western branch of the Xiaojiang fault.Studying this fault is important in understanding current deformation and kinematic characteristics of the Tibetan Plateau.Activities and stretches have been well undertaken on the Xiaojiang fault, while paleoseismic research work is always the weak link on this fault.To investigate the paleoseismic history and large earthquake activity of the Xiaojiang fault, we opened a large trench at the northern edge of Caohaizi sag pond on the western branch of the Xiaojiang fault.Six paleoseismic events have been identified, and named E1 through E6 from the oldest to the youngest.Charcoal and woods are abundant, 20 samples were dated to constrain the ages of the paleoseismic events at 40 000–36 300 BC, 35 400–24 800 BC, 9 500 BC–AD 500, AD 390–720, AD 1120–1620 and AD 1750–present.We associate the youngest event E6 with the 1833 M8 earthquake.Events E4, E5 and E6 show a continuous record of the western strand of the Xiaojiang fault in the late Holocene, with a average recurrence interval of 370–480 yr.Large earthquake recurrence in the late Holocene is far less than the recurrence of 2000–4000 yr posed in previous studies.Thus, the seismic hazard on the Xiaojiang fault should be reevaluated.Furthermore, the irregular recurrence of large earthquakes on the Xiaojiang fault and other faults in the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang system, indicates the uneven southeastward extrusion of the Sichuan-Yunnan block along the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.

Imaging 3-D crustal P-wave velocity structure of western Yunnan with bulletin data

Western Yunnan is a region with intensive tectonic activity and serious earthquake risk. It is of significant importance to study three dimensional crustal structure of this region to understand the tectonic setting and disaster mechanism. Densification and digitalization of seismic networks in this region provides an opportunity to study the velocity structure with bulletin data. In this study, we collect P-wave data of 10 403 regional earthquakes recorded by 79 seismic stations from January 2008 to December 2010. In addition to first arrivals data （Pg with epieentral distance less than 200 km and Pn）, the Pg （or P） data with epicentral distance more than 200 km are also considered as later direct arrivals in the tomographic inversion. We also compare the quantity and the quality of the seismic data before 2010 and after 2010. The test results show that adding the follow-up Pg phase can effectively improve the inversion ability of crustal imaging, and quantity and the data quality are significantly improved since 2010. The tomographie results show that： （1） The Honghe fault zone, which is the major fault systems in this region, may cut through the entire crust, and the velocity contrasts between two sides at lower crust beneath the Honghe fault are estimated at higher than 10%, while the velocity difference below Nujiang fault zone extends only in the upper crust; （2） Most of the earthquakes in the region occurred at the interface of high-velocity media and low-velocity media, i.e., the areas with high velocity gradient, which has been validated in other areas.

Statistical features of aftershock distribution size for moderate and large earthquakes in Chinese mainland

Based on data of earthquake sequences with Ms≥5.0 in Chinese mainland from 1970 to 2004, for different sequence types and different rupture modes of the main shock, the relationship between aftershock distribution size R and the magnitude of the main shock Mo has been studied statistically. Considering the rupture mode of the main shock, we give the quantitative statistical relationships between R and Mo under 95% confidence level for different sequence typos. Qualitatively, lgR, the logarithm of the aftershock distribution size, is positively correlative to the M0, but the data distribution is dispersed. Viewing from different sequence typos, the correlation between R and M0 is very weak for isolated earthquake type （lET） sequence, R distributes in the range from 5 to 60 km; For mainshock-aftershock type （MAT）, lgR is positively correlative to M0; For multiple main shock type （MMT）, the corelation between lgR and M0 is not very obvious when M0≤6.2 and R distributes in the range from 5 to 70 km, while it shows a linear correlation when M0≥6.3. The statistical results also show that the occupational ratios of different sequence types for strike-slip and oblique slip are almost the same. But for dip-slip （mostly are thrust mechanisms）, the ratio of MAT is higher than that of IET and MMT. Comparing with previous results, it indicates that, when M0 is large enough, R is mainly determined by M0 and there is almost no relationship with the rupture mode of the main shock.

Seismic anisotropy of the crust in Yunnan,China:Polarizations of fast shear-waves

Using seismic data recorded by Yunnan Telemetry Seismic Network from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2003, the dominant polarization directions of fast shear-waves are obtained at 10 digital seismic stations by SAM technique, a systematic analysis method on shear-wave splitting, in this study. The results show that dominant directions of polarizations of fast shear-waves at most stations are mainly at nearly N-S or NNW direction in Yunnan. The dominant polarization directions of fast shear-waves at stations located on the active faults are consistent with the strike of active faults, directions of regional principal compressive strains measured from GPS data, and basically consistent with regional principal compressive stress. Only a few of stations.show complicated polarization pattern of fast shear-waves, or are not consistent with the strike of active faults and the directions of principal GPS compressive strains, which are always located at junction of several faults. The result reflects complicated fault distribution and stress field. The dominant polarization direction of fast shear-wave indicates the direction of the in-situ maximum principal compressive stress is controlled by multiple tectonic aspects such as the regional stress field and faults.

On temporal and spatial distribution of seismic apparent stresses in Yunnan area

The method of radiation energy （ER） of the earthquake wave measured by the peak velocity （r·v） of the ground motion is applied to a detailed study on the temporal and spatial distribution of the seismic apparent stresses （σa） for the moderate and small earthquakes and two aftershock sequences in Yunnan area. The results show that there exists an obvious non-homogeneity for the seismic apparent stresses in the spatial distribution. The concentrated regions of the high apparent stresses are related to the active places of the moderate and small earthquakes. Before the Dayao M=6.2 earthquake, there was a period in which the apparent stresses were high and the value was 5 times of the average value, 0.25 MPa. The relatively high values of apparent stresses distribute around the epicentral area of the major shock and nearby. It indicates that the variation characteristics of the apparent stresses can be taken as a new kind of criterion for the earthquake-risk forecast. Usually the ratio of the apparent stresses of the aftershock sequence σaA to the ones σaM of main shock is less than 1.0.

Subarea characteristics of earthquake types in Yunnan

Studies on the earthquake sequences and the source mechanisms of the strong earthquakes show that Yurman has more obvious subarea characteristics of earthquake type. Strike-slip seismic fault and mainshock-aftershock earthquake sequences are dominant in whole Yunnan area. Considering the ratio of non strike-slip faults and non mainshock-aftershock, Yurman area can be divided into four subareas with different characteristics, which are strike-slip mainshock-aftershock in central Yunnan （A1）, incline-slip swarm in northwestern Yunnan （A2）, strike-slip double shocks in western Yunnan （B1） and quasi-strike-slip mainshock-aftershock in southwestern Yunnan （BE）, respectively.

Q value of anelastic S-wave attenuation in Yunnan region

The study of seismic attenuation property is a major subject in seismology. Seismic waves recorded by seismic stations （seismographs） contain source effect, seismic wave propagation effect, site response of seismic stations and instrumental response. The path effect of seismic wave propagation, site response of seismic stations and instrumental response must be taken out in the study of source property with seismic data. The path effect of seismic wave propagation （seismic attenuation） involves an important influential factor, the anelastic attenuation of medium, which is measured with quality factor Q, apart from geometric attenuation with the distance. As a basic physical parameter of the Earth medium, Q value is essential for quantitative study of earthquakes and source property （e.g. determination of source parameters）, which is widely used in earthquake source physics and engineering seismology.

Study on medium-short term earthquake forecast in Yunnan Province by precursory events

The medium-short term forecast for a certain kinds of main earthquake events might be possible with the time-to-failure method presented by Varnes (1989), Bufe and Varnes (1993), which is to simulate an accelerative releasing model of precursory earthquake energy. By fitting the observed data with the theoretical formula, a medium-short term forecast technique for the main shock events could be established, by which the location, time and magnitude of the main shock could be determined. The data used in the paper are obtained from the earthquake catalogue recorded by Yunnan Regional Seismological Network with a time coverage of 1965~2002. The statistical analyses for the past 37 years show that the data of M2.5 earthquakes were fairly complete. In the present paper, 30 main shocks occurred in Yunnan region were simulated. For 25 of them, the forecasting time and magnitude from the simulation of precursory sequence are very close to the actual values with the precision of about 0.57 (magnitude unit). Suppose that the last event of the precursory sequence is known, then the time error for the forecasting main shock is about 0.64 year. For the other 5 main shocks, the simulation cannot be made due to the insufficient precursory events for the full determination of energy accelerating curve or disturbance to the energy-release curve. The results in the paper indicate that there is no obviously linear relation in the optimal searching radius for the main shock and the precursory events because Yunnan is an active region with damage earthquakes and moderate and small earthquakes. However, there is a strong correlation between the main shock moment and the coefficient k/m. The optimal fitting range for the forecasting time and magnitude can be further reduced using the relation between the main shock moment lgM0 and the coefficient lgk/m and the value range of the restricting index m, by which the forecast precision of the simulated main shock can be improved. The time-to-failure method is used to fit 30 main shocks in the paper and more than 80% of them have acquired better results, indicating that the method is prospective for its ability to forecast the known main shock sequence. Therefore, the prospect is cheerful to make medium-short term forecast for the forthcoming main shocks by the precursory events.

The Spatial-temporal Distribution and Their Statistical Characteristics of Foreshocks in the Yunnan Region

We analyzed 223 earthquakes with M ≥5. 0 that occurred in the Yunnan region during1965- 2014,among which 74( about 33. 2%) had foreshocks. There are great differences in foreshock populations in different tectonic blocks: the most abundant foreshocks occurred in the Lancang-Gengma and Tengchong-Baoshan blocks,which have the most abundant foreshocks in the Yunnan region. The predominant magnitude difference,time interval and spatial distance are 0. 5- 2. 9,within 10 days and within 20 km,respectively.These characteristics can be used to forecast the mainshock after the identification of a foreshock.

Study of the Evaluation Model of the Earthquake Influence Field in Yunnan

In this paper,we conducted a regression analysis of the intensity distribution data of 146 earthquakes( M ≥ 5. 0) which occurred in the period from 1900 to 2014. According to previous research,Yunnan is divided into 3 tectonic regions. Then we use the data of the isoseismic lines in these 3 regions to fit the intensity-attenuation model of each region.Since there were a few M ≥ 7. 0 earthquakes in this 114-year period,the fitted intensityattenuation model of the strong earthquakes would be random or uncertain. To solve this problem,we introduce the Rupture Scale relationship to limiting our fitted intensityattenuation model of strong earthquakes. We choose the empirical relationship of magnitude and rupture-scale,which was proposed by Li Zhonghua and Qin Jiazheng,to correct the size of the influence field estimated through our intensity-attenuation model.Comparing our intensity-attenuation models with the previous ones, we find that in a certain tectonic region,the intensity isoseismals estimated through our model have average minimum error with the real intensity isoseismal decided through field investigation.Therefore,it is more advisable to choose the small-scale zone for the intensity-attenuation evaluation.