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

Introduction In recent years the study of the digital seismology has made great progress due to the wide use of the broadband digital records. And many fine results of the focal theory have obtained. The focal theory mainly studies the physical process of the seismic fracture and production of the seismic wave, as well as its traveling process. One of the great progresses is to simulate the fracture process in the active fault. Especially a new concept of the fracture mechanics has been intro…

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

The method of radiation energy (E _R) 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 (σ _a) 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 σ _aA to the ones σ _aM of main shock is less than 1.0. Foundation item: Key project of Science and Technology from Yunnan Province (NG2001).