Indications of late medieval earthquakes in the Talas-Fergana Fault Zone,Tien Shan

A paleoseismological study in the Talas-Fergana Fault Zone of the Tien Shan was accompanied by age determination of ancient seismic events. The calibrated radiocarbon datings of recent and buried soils allowed us to recognize the fault segments reactivated during strong earthquakes that occurred in the 14th- 16th centuries A.D. The magnitude of the paleoseismological event in the 16th century was no lower than 7.0 and no lower than IX in seismic intensity.     

Heterogeneities of the field of short-period shear wave attenuation in the lithosphere of Central Asia and their relationship with seismicity

The characteristics of the short-period shear wave attenuation field in the lithosphere of the Turanian Plate, West Tien Shan, Pamir, and Hindu Kush have been studied. The method based on analysis of the logarithm of the ratio between maximal amplitudes of Sn and Pn waves (Sn/Pn parameter) has been applied. More than 400 records of earthquakes, obtained at distances of ∼400–1000 km from the AAK digital station, have been processed. It has been found that relatively weak attenuation is observed in the regions of the West Tien Shan and Pamir. The largest area of strong attenuation is located in the region of the Afghan-Tadjik Depression adjacent to Hindu Kush. A wide band of low Sn/Pn parameter values, stretched northeastwards, has been distinguished. Along with the analogous band of strong attenuation, distinguished before in the regions of Central Tien Shan and Dzungaria, it is the continuation of the largest Chaman Fault, which stretches 850 km along the boundary of the Indian Plate. Source zones of strong earthquakes with M ≥ 7.0 that occurred in the first half of 20th century correspond to relatively weak attenuation. Areas of high attenuation, where strong seismic events have not occurred for the last 110 years, are outlined. Analogously to other seismoactive regions, it is supposed that these areas are related to preparation of strong earthquakes.     

Deep mechanisms in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan orogen (from results of seismic tomography)

Seismic-tomography studies were conducted in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan using two different observation schemes. The first was based on the arrival times of P and S waves from regional earthquakes recorded with local seismological networks (local scheme). Nonlinear tomographic inversion based on the LOTOS algorithm was used to construct the 3D distributions of P and S wave velocities in the crust beneath the Kyrgyz Tien Shan and to refine the earthquake locations. The second scheme was used to study the upper-mantle structure based on data from global earthquake catalogs (regional scheme). All the data on waves which at least partly travel within the volume studied were used here, including (1) those from regional earthquakes recorded at world seismic stations and (2) teleseisms recorded at the local stations. This approach was earlier applied to calculate the upper-mantle structure beneath Asia. We used a fragment of this structure beneath the Tien Shan and adjacent areas. A series of synthetic tests was performed to estimate the resolution provided by both schemes. The tomography shows traces of the delamination of the Tarim mantle lithosphere from south to north. Also, the local and regional schemes reveal evidence for cold-matter descent from north to south in the northern Tien Shan but on a much smaller scale. Low velocities in the upper mantle beneath the Tien Shan might indicate lithospheric thinning. These data suggest that mantle-lithosphere delamination is taking place underneath both the northern and the southern margins of the Tien Shan collision belt. Lack of the mantle lithosphere beneath the Tien Shan leads to lithospheric weakening and active deformation, thus causing intense orogeny.     

Unknown large ancient earthquakes along the Kurai fault zone (Gorny Altai): new results of palaeoseismological and archaeoseismological studies

Palaeoseismological and archaeoseismological studies in the Kurai fault zone, along which the Kurai Range is thrust onto Cenozoic deposits of the Chuya intramontane basin, led to the identification of a long reverse fault scarp 8.0 m high. The scarp segments are primary seismic deformations of large ancient earthquakes. The scarp’s morphology, results of trenching investigations, and deformations of Neogene deposits indicate a thrusting of the piedmont plain onto the Kurai Range, which is unique for the Gorny Altai. Similarly for Northern Tien Shan, we explain this by the formation of both a thrust transporting the mountain range onto the depression and a branching thrust dislocation that forms the detected fault scarp. In a trench made in one of the scarp segments, we identified the parameters of the seismogenic fault – a thrust with a 30° dipping plane. The reconstructed displacement along the fault plane is 4.8 m and the vertical displacement is 2.4 m, which indicates a 7.2–7.6 magnitude of the ancient earthquake. The ¹⁴C age of the humus-rich loamy sand from the lower part of the colluvial wedge constrains the age of the earthquake at 3403–3059 years BP. Younger than 2500 years seismogenic displacements along the fault scarp are indicated by deformations of cairn structures of the Turalu–Dzhyurt-III burial mound, which was previously dated as iron age between the second half of I BC and I AD.     

Palaeozoic collisional tectonics and magmatism of the Chinese Tien Shan, central Asia

The Chinese Tien Shan range is a Palaeozoic orogenic belt which contains two collision zones. The older, southern collision accreted a north-facing passive continental margin on the north side of the Tarim Block to an active continental margin on the south side of an elongate continental tract, the Central Tien Shan. Collision occurred along the Qinbulak-Qawabulak Fault (Southern Tien Shan suture). The time of the collision is poorly constrained, but was probably in in the Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous. We propose this age because of a major disconformity at this time along the north side of the Tarim Block, and because the Youshugou ophiolite is imbricated with Middle Devonian sediments. A younger, probably Late Carboniferous-Early Permian collision along the North Tien Shan Fault (Northern Tien Shan suture) accreted the northern side of the Central Tien Shan to an island arc which lay to its north, the North Tien Shan arc. This collision is bracketed by the Middle Carboniferous termination of arc magmatism and the appearance of Late Carboniferous or Early Permian elastics in a foreland basin developed over the extinct arc. Thrust sheets generated by the collision are proposed as the tectonic load responsible for the subsidence of this basin. Post-collisional, but Palaeozoic, dextral shear occurred along the northern suture zone, this was accompanied by the intrusion of basic and acidic magmas in the Central Tien Shan. Late Palaeozoic basic igneous rocks from all three lithospheric blocks represented in the Tien Shan possess chemical characteristics associated with generation in supra-subduction zone environments, even though many post-date one or both collisions. Rocks from each block also possess distinctive trace element chemistries, which supports the three-fold structural division of the orogenic belt. It is unclear whether the chemical differences represent different source characteristics, or are due to different episodes of magmatism being juxtaposed by later dextral strike-slip fault motions. Because the southern collision zone in the Tien Shan is the older of the two, the Tarim Block sensu stricto collided not with the Eurasian landmass, but with a continental block which was itself separated from Eurasia by at least one ocean. The destruction of this ocean in Late Carboniferous-Early Permian times represented the final elimination of all oceanic basins from this part of central Asia.     

Evidence for strong paleoearthquakes along the Talas-Fergana Fault near the Kök-Bel Pass,Kyrgyzstan

Paleoseismological study along the Talas-Fergana Fault near the Kök-Bel Pass in the central Western Tien Shan allows us to estimate the rate of late Holocene horizontal offset at 13–14 mm/yr, as well as the radiocarbon age of the strong earthquakes that occurred here about 300, 2400, and 5000 yr ago.     

Active faults of the northern Tien Shan: tectonophysical zoning of seismic risk

This study continues the work by Mikhail Gzovsky on geological (tectonophysical) criteria for seismic risk. It is suggested to perform seismic-risk zoning according to parameters of normal and shear stresses on fault planes converted from results of tectonophysical stress reconstructions. The approach requires the knowledge of both dip and strike of the respective fault segments. Slip geometry is estimated from stress tensor, assuming that it is directed along shear stress. The suggested approach is applied to faults in the northern Tien Shan, and the current stress parameters are reconstructed using source mechanisms of catalogued earthquakes recorded by the KNET seismological network of the RAS Science Station in Bishkek. Stress modeling is performed by the method of cataclastic analysis providing constraints on stress ellipsoids, as well as on relations between the spherical and deviatoric components of the stress tensor. Plotted on the Mohr diagram, the fault stress points allow estimating whether the respective fault segments are close to the critical state (brittle failure). The suggested seismic-risk zoning of faults in the northern Tien Shan reveals up to 25 km long hazardous fault segments.     

Intracontinental subduction and Palaeozoic inheritance of the lithosphere suggested by a teleseismic experiment across the Chinese Tien Shan

Teleseismic tomography across the Chinese Tien Shan shows that seismic wave speeds in the lithosphere beneath central Tien Shan are high and therefore the lithosphere is not weaker than that beneath the adjacent undeformed Tarim and Junggar basins. There is evidence for significant velocity contrasts within the lithosphere that are presumably inherited from the Palaeozoic collision history. The high-velocity, thick Yili block observed underneath the northern Tien Shan is a clue for shortening by a intracontinental subduction. The observed geometry is consistent with a simple model of intracontinental subduction and suggests that, during orogeny, the lithosphere has remained heterogeneous and has deformed along existing planes of weakness rather than by homogeneous thickening of a particularly weak lithosphere.     

Seismically mobilized moraines in the Tien Shan

Moraines studied in the Chon-Kyzylsuu River valley (southeastern Lake Issyk-Kul region, Tien Shan) were mobilized during historic and prehistoric large earthquakes. Seismic triggers of moraine mobilization included the M > 8 Kebin earthquake of 1911 and prehistoric events that produced rockslides, landslides, and multiple fault scarps. Rockslides in the Chon-Kyzylsuu basin are located in the hanging wall of the Terskey border thrust fault. The observed deformation results from at least four prehistoric earthquakes in the second half of the Holocene (early 20th century BC, early 11th century BC, middle 8th century BC, and early 2nd century BC), with local shaking intensity I > 7.     

汶川8级大地震同震破裂的特殊性及构造意义——多条平行断裂同时活动的反序型逆冲地震事件

汶川地震是有仪器记录以来发生的世界上最大的板内逆冲型地震之一。野外调查表明,沿北东走向的龙门山断裂带上,至少有两条逆冲断裂同时参与汶川地震的同震破裂过程,即北川断裂和安县灌县断裂（彭灌断裂）。倾向北西的高角度北川逆冲断裂上的地表破裂长度大于200 km,可能达225 km。运动方式在南部表现为以北西盘抬升的逆冲为主,往北东转为逆冲右旋走滑,走滑分量与垂向陡坎高度相当,陡坎高度最大值约为11 m。在彭灌断裂上,地表破裂表现为北西盘抬升的近纯逆冲性质的破裂,破裂长度达70 km,陡坎最高达3~3.5 m。汶川地震是世界上第一次明确记录到多条平行断裂参与同震破裂的逆冲型地震,而且因发震断层是龙门山断裂带内部的高角度逆冲断裂,而非断裂带前锋的低角度逆冲断裂,所以汶川地震属于反序型逆冲断裂活动。这与1999年我国台湾7.5级集集地震和2005年克什米尔7.6级地震类似,说明反序型逆冲地震具有普遍性。汶川地震这一震级大、破裂长的逆冲地震事件是对目前流行的青藏高原下地壳流动的变形假说提出的严峻挑战,同时也表明加强青藏高原东缘南北地震带上其他滑动速率较低但同样具有发生大地震可能性的活动断裂的滑动速率和古地震定量研究的紧迫性,因为这一地区人口密度与东部相当,但发生强震的频率更高。     

The 1988 Tennant Creek,northern territory,earthquakes: A synthesis

Three large earthquakes with surface‐wave magnitudes 6.3–6.7 on 22 January 1988 were associated with 32 km of surface faulting on two main scarps 30 km southwest of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. These events provide an excellent opportunity to study the mechanics of midplate earthquakes because of the abundance of geological and geophysical data in the area, the proximity of the Warramunga seismic array and the ease of access to the fault zone. The 1988 earthquakes were located in the North Australian Craton in an area that had no history of moderate or large earthquakes before 1986. Additionally, no smaller earthquakes from the fault zone were identified at the Warramunga array, which is situated only 30 km from the nearest scarp, between the 1965 installation of the array and 1986. The main shocks were preceded by a swarm of moderatesized (magnitude 4–5) earthquakes in January 1987 and many smaller aftershocks throughout 1987. Careful relocation of all teleseismically recorded earthquakes from the fault zone shows that the 1987 activity was concentrated in an area only 6 km across in the gap between the two main fault scarps. The main shocks also nucleated in the centre of the fault zone near the 1987 activity. Field observations of scarp morphology indicate that the scarp is divided into three segments, each showing primarily reverse faulting. However, whereas the western and eastern segments show movement of the southern block over the northern, the central scarp segment shows the opposite, with the northern block thrust over the southern block.

Analysis of the first arrival times at Warramunga suggests that the three main shocks were associated with the western, central and eastern scarp segments, respectively. The locations of aftershocks determined using data from temporary seismograph arrays in the epicentral area define three inclined zones of activity that are interpreted as fault planes. In the western and eastern portions of the aftershock zone, these concentrations of activity dip to the south at 45° and 35°, respectively, but in the central section the aftershock zone dips to the north at 55°. Focal mechanisms derived from modelling broadband teleseismic data show thrust and oblique thrust faulting for the three main shocks. The first event ruptured unilaterally up and to the northwest on the westernmost fault segment, while the third main shock ruptured horizontally to the southeast. Modelling of repeat levelling data from the epicentral area requires at least three distinct fault planes, with the eastern and western planes dipping to the south and the central plane dipping to the north. The combination of scarp morphology, aftershock distribution and elevation data makes a strong case for rupture of fault planes in conjugate orientation during the 22 January 1988 Tennant Creek earthquakes. More than 20000 aftershocks have been recorded at Warramunga and activity continues to the present‐day with occasional shocks felt in the town of Tennant Creek and some recent off‐fault aftershocks located directly under the Warramunga seismic array. Stratigraphic relationships exposed in trenches excavated across the scarps suggest that during the Quaternary, a large earthquake ruptured the surface along one segment of the 1988 scarps.     

Cenozoic tectonic and geodynamic evolution of the Kyrgyz Tien Shan Mountains: A review of geological,thermochronological and geophysical data

The complex crustal structure of the Tien Shan has a strong impact on the distribution of strain induced by the India–Eurasia collision, with intracontinental deformation in Eurasia’s interior as a distant effect. The northward propagation of the India–Eurasia deformation front is suggested by the rejuvenation of mountain ranges and intermittent intramontane basins. The Tien Shan basement is formed by the rigid, heterogeneous Precambrian blocks (microcontinents) of Tarim, Issyk-Kul (or Central Tien Shan) and Aktyuz-Boordin, surrounded by a ‘soft’ matrix of Paleozoic accretion–collision belts. The Kyrgyz Tien Shan Mountains are situated between the active structures of the Tarim Plate and the Pamir indenter (south), and the stable Kazakhstan Shield (north). Underplating by the Tarim Plate and thrusting by the Pamirs are responsible for the building of the Cenozoic Tien Shan, the reactivation of its inherited structural fabric and the tectonic layering of the upper lithosphere underlying the area. Large earthquakes (M > 6) delineate the northern and southern margins of the Issyk-Kul microcontinent, indicating that crustal heterogeneity influenced the location of active structures in the northern Kyrgyz Tien Shan.     

Some problems of geotectonics of Sinkiang district

During Paleozoic time the central Tien Shan crystalline zone, a geanticlinal region with two deep rifts, separated the southern and northern Tien Shan geosynclines. The uplifting movement was primary within this period. Within Sinkiang the southern belt of the western section of Pei Shan is a Late Paleozoic subsiding zone, developed on the basement of the Precambrian folds. Pei Shan fault block is not the eastern extension of the Tien Shan geosyncline nor a branch of it. Rejuvenation of the fold in the northern Kunlun syneclise fold zone was not Caledonian but late Variscan, in the western Kunlun geosynclinal fold zone. –IGR Staff.     

The last major earthquakes along the Magallanes–Fagnano fault system recorded by disturbed trees (Tierra del Fuego,South America)

Forests situated above active fault zones may record hillslope evolution, thus holding information about recent seismic events. Lenga trees (Nothofagus pumilio) extend across the Magallanes–Fagnano fault system (MFFS), the active transform boundary between the South American and Scotia plates. Coseismic surface ruptures along the fault scarp tilt trees located uphill. During the interseismic period, tree growth curves the trunks. Annual tree rings from the study area show abrupt changes from concentric to asymmetric, allowing the timing of major historical earthquakes to be established. In this case, tree‐ring analysis suggests rupture on the MFFS fault scarp in 1883 ± 5 and 1941 ± 10, coinciding with the February 1, 1879 (Modified Mercalli Scale, VI) and the December 17, 1949 (Ms 7.8) earthquakes in Tierra del Fuego. Our results provide evidence that this fault system was the source of these earthquakes, which has implications for seismic hazard in the study region.     

Cenozoic tectonics in the Urumgi-Korla region of the Chinese Tien Shan

Cenozoic deformation within the Tien Shan of central Asia has accommodated part of the post-collisional indentation of the Indian plate into Asia. Within the Urumgi—Korla region of the Chinese Tien Shan this occurred dominantly on thrusts, with secondary strike-slip faulting. The gross pattern of deformation is of moderate to steeply dipping thrusts that have overthrust foreland basins to the north and south of the range, the Junggar and Tarim basins, respectively. Smaller foreland basins lie within the margins of the range itself (Turfan, Chai Wo Pu, Korla and Qumishi basins); these lie in the footwalls of local thrust systems. Both the Turfan and the Korla basins contain major thrusts within them; they are complex foreland basins. Deformation has progressively affected regions further into the interior of the Junggar Basin, and propagated into the interiors of the intermontane basins. No unidirectional deformation front has passed across the Tien Shan in the Neogene and Quaternary. An Oligocene unconformity may indicate the time of the onset of the Cenozoic deformation, but most of the Cenozoic molasse has been deposited after the Palaeogene. The rate of deposition in basins next to the uplifted ranges has increased since the onset of deformation. There has been at least about 80 km of Cenozoic shortening across this part of the Tien Shan. Cenozoic shortening is greater in sections of the range further west; these are nearer to the northern margin of the Indian indenter. Cenozoic compression has reactivated structures created by the two late Palaeozoic collisions that created the ancestral Tien Shan. These Palaeozoic structures have exerted a strong control over the style and location of the Cenozoic deformation.     

Reappraisal of great historical earthquakes in the northern Chile and southern Peru seismic gaps

A critical reappraisal of great historical interplate earthquakes in the occidental margin of South America, including southern Peru and northern Chile, is carried out.A spacetime distribution of the earthquakes associated to the seismotectonics regions defined by the rupture zones of the greatest events (1868, Mw = 8.8 and 1877, Mw = 8.8) is obtained. Both regions are seismic gaps that are in the maturity state of their respective earthquake cycles. The region associated to the 1868 earthquake presents a notable seismic quiescence in the present century.     

Crustal structure beneath the central Tien Shan from ambient noise tomography

Through analysis of seismic ambient noise recorded by the GHENGIS array, we constructed a high‐resolution 3‐D crustal shear‐wave velocity model for the central Tien Shan. The obtained shear‐wave velocity model provides insight into the detailed crustal structure beneath the Tien Shan. The results obtained at shallow depths are well correlated with known subsurface geological features. Low velocities are found mainly beneath sedimentary basins, whereas high velocities are mainly associated with mountain ranges. At greater depths of ~43–45 km, high velocities were observed beneath the Tarim Basin and Kazakh Shield; these high velocities extend forward in opposite directions and tilt down towards the central Tien Shan to a depth of in excess of 50 km, most likely reflecting lateral variations in crustal thickness beneath the Tien Shan and surrounding platforms.     

Paleoseismological and archaeoseismological data from the western Alabash–Konurolen intramontane basin (southern Lake Issyk Kul area,Kyrgyzstan)

Paleoseismological and archaeoseismological studies have furnished proof that the northern border of the Alabash–Konurolen basin is thrusting over the basin sediments. The sediments store a record of two earthquakes that occurred between 8400 and 7300 yr BP and presumably in the 16th century. The minimum magnitude of the latter earthquake was estimated, based on the length (2.3 km) of the fault scarp it produced and the amount of displacement (0.4 m) on the respective reverse plane, to range within 6.6–6.8. The older event was of about the same minimum magnitude. The results call for a revision of the existing seismic risk division of Kyrgyzstan that places the Alabash–Konurolen basin into a zone of M ≤ 6.5 seismicity.     

Heterogeneities of the shear wave attenuation field in the lithosphere of East Tien Shan and their relationship with seismicity

The shear wave attenuation field in the lithosphere of Eastern Tien Shan has been mapped. The method based on analysis of the ratio between amplitudes of Sn and Pn waves was used. On aggregate, about 120 seismograms made at the Makanchi station (MKAR), mainly in the period of 2003–2009, at epicentral distances of about 350–1200 km were analyzed. It was found that shear wave attenuation in the lithosphere of Eastern Tien Shan is weaker than that in the region of Central Tien Shan. This agrees with the fact that the rate of deformation of the Earth’s crust in Eastern Tien Shan is lower (based on GPS data), as is the seismicity level, in comparison to Central Tien Shan. The zones of high attenuation, where strong earthquakes with M > 7.0 have not occurred for the last 200 years, have been identified: first of all, these are the area west of Urumqi and that of the Lop Nur test site. It is suggested that in the first zone, where an annular seismicity structure has formed over the last 30 years, a strong earthquake may be being prepared. The second zone is most probably related to the uplift of mantle fluids resulting from a long-term intensive technogenic effect, analogous to what has occurred in areas of other nuclear test sites (Nevada and Semipalatinsk).     

200-m-deep earthquake swarm in Tricastin (lower Rhône Valley, France) accounts for noisy seismicity over past centuries

In the lower Rhône Valley (France), the Tricastin area was struck in 2002–2003 by an earthquake swarm with a maximum M _L-magnitude of 1.7. These shocks would have gone unnoticed if they had not occurred beneath habitations and close to the surface, some events being only 200-m deep. A several months' monitoring of the seismic activity by a 16-station mobile network showed that earthquakes clustered along a N–S-trending, at least 5-km long, shallow rupture zone, with no corresponding fault mapped in the surface. Half of the seismic events occurred in a massive, c.  250-m-thick, Lower Cretaceous limestone slab that outcrops near by. Since the late eighteenth century, several much more severe earthquake swarms have struck Tricastin. The 1772–1773 and 1933–1936 swarms were prolific and protracted, with reports of numerous detonations and even damage. Obviously, the abnormal noises that caused panic in the past centuries can be explained by the shallowness of the phenomena, a 200-m focal depth being perhaps a record value for tectonic earthquakes.