THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REGIONAL SEISMIC ENERGY RELEASE AND RELATIVE MOTION BETWEEN BLOCKS ON BOTH SIDES OF YISHU FAULT ZONE

Following the 11 March 2011 Japan M_W9.0 earthquake, frequent moderate and small events occurred on the Yishu fault zone and its either side. Using continuous GPS data and a sliding block model, this work studies the relationship between the energy release of these shocks and the block relative motion of either side of the Yishu fault zone. The results show that(1)the equivalent magnitude M from released energy and the two blocks' relative motion are well correlated when earthquakes are selected in a retrieval circle(whose center is the midpoint of the Yishu fault zone)with a radius of 250~500km and using a sliding time window of 3~10 months. The best correlation coefficient between M and the two blocks' relative motion is 0.74 and the T test shows a significant linear correlation between them.(2)Spatial distribution of the correlation coefficients shows that the relative motion of the blocks on both sides affects the energy release in the area from the north part of Yishu fault zone to the Jiaodong Peninsula area and southwest Shandong-Henan border area obviously.(3)Since June 2014, the relative motion of the two blocks on both sides of the Yishu fault zone presents a wave of change, which may be an expression of the accumulation of seismic strain energy in the Yishu fault zone and its two sides. The linear relationship between the equivalent magnitude M from released energy and two blocks' relative motion V can be fitted by linear equation M=0.51*V+3.9, showing that strain energy accumulation could be released by the moderate and small earthquakes in a timely manner, which may favorable to delay the seismic risk in the study area. It also shows, on the other hand, that earthquake energy was not released so completely in the study area since the end of 2015 to 2016, which is likely associated with the Changdao earthquake swarm in 2017.