On the physical model of earthquake precursor fields and the mechanism of precursors’ time-space distribution (III) — anomalies of seismicity and crustal deformation and their mechanisms when a strong earthquake is in preparation

By studying the seismicity pattern before 37 earthquakes withM?6.0 in North China and the pattern of crustal deformation in the Capital Area from 1954 to 1992, some abnormal characteristics of these patterns before strong earthquakes have been extracted. A comparison has been made between the anomalies of these two kinds of patterns. From the results we can know the following. (1) Before a strong earthquake, the seismicity will strengthen and the crustal deformation rate will increase. (2) Several years before a strong earthquake, there will be seismic gaps and deformation gaps around the epicenter of the quake. (3) The dynamic parameters of patterns all show a decrease in information dimension. This means that the crustal deformation has become more and more localized with time and it gives an important indication showing that a strong earthquake is in preparation. At the end of the paper, the physical mechanisms of the abnormal patterns of seismicity and crustal deformation have been explained in a unified way in terms of the earthquake-generating model of a inhomogeneous strongbody in inhomogeneous media.