SIMULATION OF SEISMIC RISK IN THE DALIANGSHAN SUB-BLOCK AND ADJACENT AREAS USING THE NONLINEAR FRICTION FEM METHOD

Most earthquakes result from fault activity under heterogeneous loading and complex physical properties, also affected by fault structure and interaction between faults. Such a complicated mechanism makes often failures of the "seismic gap" theory in the effort of medium-and long-term earthquake prediction. This study attempts to address this issue using the finite element method(FEM).The friction behavior of faults can be used to simulate the non-uniformity of rupture processes of the seismogenic structure. So we use the FEM containing non-linear friction to simulate fault ruptures in the Daliangshan sub-block and adjacent areas, and compare the results with time-space evolution of historical M_S ≥ 7 earthquakes since 1840 in this region. In the simulation, the sequence of large-batch fault contact nodes change from "stick state" to "slip state" in short time, which mimics the sudden fault slip and the occurrence of major earthquakes. The results show that the fault breaking lengths from simulation are largely consistent with the magnitudes of historical earthquakes in the study area, such as the 1850 Puge-Xichang M_S7.5, and 1887 Shiping M_S7.0 earthquakes. The simulation also shows the development of seismic gaps and "gap breaks" by major earthquakes on the Xianshuihe fault, such as 1955 Kangding M_S7.5 earthquake. Especially, the results illustrated the very long time of the seismogenic process of the 2008 Wenchuan M_S8.0 earthquake, and the corresponding sudden big rupture along the Longmenshan Fault, which is very similar to the observed surface rupture and very long incubation time and sudden co-seismic process. Then, this simulation is further applied to long-term earthquake prediction for the study area by calculation on a much longer time. The simulation results suggest that the Xiaojiang fault and the Zemuhe fault have relatively higher seismic risk, while moderate-sized earthquakes might occur on the Daliangshan fault and the Aninghe fault, and major earthquakes might rupture the northern segment of the Xianshuihe fault in a much longer time.