Seismic evidence for stepwise thickening of the crust across the NE Tibetan plateau

We performed a receiver function analysis on teleseismic data recorded along two 550 km-long profiles crossing the northeastern Tibetan plateau. Results from time to depth migration, grid-search V_p/V_s determination and simulated annealing inversion of waveforms, reveal that the crust thickens from ∼50 km near the northern edge of the plateau to ∼80 km south of the Jinsha suture in the Qiang Tang block. Crustal thickening occurs in staircase fashion with steps located beneath the main, reactivated sutures. The V_p/V_s ratio, close to the global continental average does not suggest widespread partial melting but rather a more usual separation between an upper felsic and a lower mafic part within the northeastern Tibetan crust.     

Lower crustal attenuation in northeastern Tibetan Plateau from ML amplitude

This study investigated the crustal attenuation structures of Sg and Lg waves of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. We collected M_L amplitude data recorded at 168 permanent stations between 1985 and 2016 and 11 temporary broadband stations between 2014 and 2016. Detailed Q₀ variation maps of Sg and Lg waves were obtained by applying M_L amplitude tomography. The average Q₀ values of the Sg and Lg wave were 440 and 220, respectively. Relatively high attenuation anomalies of both waves appeared in the central and eastern regions of the Bayan Har Block and the east edge of the Qiangtang Block, which may be related to partial melting, high geotemperature, and strong tectonic processes. High attenuation anomalies were also found in the Qilian Orogenic Belt and Hetao Graben, which may be related to their active tectonic behavior and densely distributed faults. The relatively low attenuation anomalies of both waves were revealed in the Alax and Ordos blocks, Qaidam, Tarim, Qinghai Lake, and Gonghe basins, which can be explained by the tectonically stable properties and ancient composition of geological elements. These results indicate that the path between the highly attenuated lower crust of the Bayan Har Block and the Qilian Orogenic Belt is obstructed by three adjacent low attenuated areas (i.e., the Qilian, Qinghai Lake, and Gonghe basins); thus, it appears unlikely that a crustal flow channel from the interior of the Tibetan Plateau to the Qilian Orogenic Belt will form.     

冰川地震学研究进展

冰川地震学结合了冰川学和地震学的综合优势,形成一门年轻的交叉学科.冰震是指冰川运动和破裂过程中产生的振动,包括从微小的嘎吱声到相当于7级地震的突发性破裂或滑动.当前,根据冰震发生的位置以及发生机理的不同,将冰震大概分为五类:冰川表层破裂、冰川终端崩解、冰内水力压裂、冰腔水流震荡、冰层基底黏滑.冰震研究除了可以采用传统地震学方法外,也可以结合GPS、数值模拟、冰川物性等多学科综合方法来研究,进一步可以探究冰崩的发生过程及危险性评估.本文回顾了国内外冰川地震学的研究进展,介绍了我国研究人员在青藏高原地区开展的冰川地震研究工作,综合探讨了冰川地震对天然地震研究的启示.     

Analysis on monitoring crust movement by using GPS in Qinghai-Xiqang Plateau

Based on the analysis of the 1993 and 1995 GPS data acquired from crust movement and deformation monitoring in thc Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the following preliminary conclusions could be drawn: the levelly moving rate and direction of the land massifs in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau tally with the viewpoint generally held by geologists and geophysicists irr recent years; the accuracy of monitoring crust movement has reached the world advanced level; the result has provided valuable and reliable information to the quantitative analysis of the modern crust movement and deformation in the plateau. Project supported by the Nntional Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Crustal structure of northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau by receiver function inversion

Using seismic data of about one year recorded by 18 broadband stations of ASCENT project,we obtained 2547 receiver functions in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.The Moho depths under 14 stations were calculated by applying the H-κ domain search algorithm.The Moho depths under the stations with lower signal-noise ratio(SNR) were estimated by the time delay of the PS conversion.Results show that the Moho depth varies in a range of ~40–60 km.The Moho near the Haiyuan fault is vague,and its depth is larger than those on its two sides.In the Qinling-Qilian Block,the Moho becomes shallower gradually from west to east.To the east of 105°E,the average depth of the Moho is 45 km,whereas the west is 50 km or even deeper.Combining our results with surface wave research,we suggest a boundary between the Qinling and the Qilian Mountains at around 105°E.S wave velocities beneath 15 stations have been obtained through a linear inversion by using Crust2.0 as an initial model,and the crustal thickness that was derived by H-κ domain search algorithm was also taken into account.The results are very similar to the results of previous active source studies.The resulting figure indicates that low velocity layers developed in the middle and lower crust beneath the transition zone of the Tibet Block and western Qinling,which may be related to regional faults and deep earth dynamics.The velocity of the middle and lower crust increases from the Songpan Block to the northeastern margin of Tibetan Plateau.Based on the velocity of the crust,the distribution of the low velocity zone and the composition of the curst(Poisson's ratio),we infer that the crust thickening results from the crust shortening along the direction of compression.     

The complexity of the crust from refraction/wide-angle reflection data

ThePmP wide-angle reflected signal from the Moho shows a wide variation in its characteristics when cornpared from region to region. If the earth's crust is simple and homogeneous and the Moho is a sharp discontinuity, supercriticalPmP wavelets are large and isolated in the 100 km to 300 km distance range when compared to the preceding signals on the seismic traces. If the crust itself has numerous short reflectors and the Moho transition zone is thick or badly disrupted from past tectonic disturbances, thenPmP is often poorly defined and difficult to identify in the coda of earlier arriving signals. These signals are poorly correlated because the reflectors themselves are in general not only discontinuous but tend to be distributed at various depths within the crust. The effect of the vertical velocity gradient in the crust is to make the reflective field for downgoing waves much greater than for upgoing waves. The large variations in reflection coefficients wiht angle of incidence has the effect of making the coda generated by a reflective machanism distance dependent. The reflected signals are also contaminated with scattered signals from smaller scale heterogeneities which may be distributed more uniformly within the crust.In conventional seismic inversion methods applied to crustal refraction experiments, emphasis is usually placed on obtaining a velocity model of the subsurface structure. These models are relatively simple and are limited in the amount of complexity which can be uniquely inferred from the data. The main problem arises because of the difficulties in the identification of the origin of the signals which are themselves often incoherent from trace to trace.In this paper it is shown how the conventional record section may be complemented with a normal moveout corrected intensity section which emphasizes areas of large signal complexities. Data from this intensity section is then used as input to obtain a quantitative measurement of a complexity parameter. These measurements may be used to infer or compare differences in crustal heterogeneity from one region to another. The discussion is illustrated with both numerical modeling data as well as data from recent crustal experiments which were conducted over the Canadian Shield.     

Crustal structure of northeastern Tibet inferred from receiver function analysis

Sponsored by National Science & Technology Committee, the cooperation between China Academy of Geoscience and Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, University Joseph, France conducted a lithospherical experiment using 40 Minititan 3-component and 13 CEIS 1-component seismometers along the road from Gonghe to Yushu in Qinghai Province during 5 months after June, 1998. The interested area is on the north of Bangong- Nujiang fault, the east of Qaidam basin, the south of Center Qilian fault and the west of Longmenshan fault. And the profile across most tectonic parts of Eastern Tibet such as Southern Qilian, Eastern Kunlun fault, Bayan Har terrane, Jinshajiang suture (Figure 1), which is the first seismological profile across Eastern Tibet (Qinghai-Tibet) and will be beneficial on the comparison with the results of its center parts, especially on the understanding of the effect of the thousands-kilometer-faraway collision between Eurasia Plate and Indian Plate on the uplifting of south and north part of Eastern Kunlun fault, and on the thickening of crust and the feature of deep structure of Qilian mountain on the north of Tibet Plateau.     

Evolution of Chinese mammalian faunal regions and elevation of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau

Mammals multiplied rapidly with the coming of Cenozoic era. They took the dominant position occu-pied by reptiles during the Mesozoic and became a superior group of vertebrates during the Cenozoic. Fossil mammals are useful for subdivision and dat-ing of Cenozoic terrestrial deposits, by virtue of their high evolutionary rates and high probability for being fossilized. The widespread Chinese Cenozoic sedi-ments, mainly pertaining to continental facies, contain abundant remains of mammals. T…     

Modeling the Dynamic Gravity Variations of Northeastern Margin of Qinghai-Xizang （Tibet） Plateau by Using Bicubic Spline Interpolation Function

INTRODUCTIONThe study of earthquakeforecast based on gravity measurement has been carried out for almost30yearsin China,and remarkable progress has been made(Jia Minyu,et al.,2000;Zhu Yiqing,etal.,2001).However,constrained byobservationtechniques and moni…     

Relation between electricity structure of the crust and deformation of crustal blocks on the northeastern margin of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was formed by coales-cence of microcontinents of different geologic histo-ries, i.e. it consists of a series of blocks, such as Hi-malayas, Lhasa, Qiangtang, Kunlun, Qaidam and Qi- lian blocks from south to north. The blocks moved firstly in the NNE direction, then in the NE direction and at last in the ENE or E-W direction from south to north by a combined action of Indian Plate moving northward and obstruction of Tarim and other blocksnorth of the plateau. T…     

Crustal velocity structures and their tectonic implications in different tectonic block regions of the Chinese mainland

In this paper,the typical velocity structures and average velocities of the crust in six different active tectonic block regions are presented on the basis of previous studies and their tectonic implications are discussed. The results show that different tectonic units have different features of crustal velocity structures. In general,there are low velocity distributions in the crust in regions with strong tectonic activities,and the scales of low velocity distributions are related to the tectonic activitie...     

Linkage of liquid conductivity of glacier ice with its alkalinity over the north Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau

Liquid conductivity (EC) measurement was conducted for the samples collected from several snow pits and ice cores over the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau, with their time range covering seasonal, decadal and centennial scales. Unlike the previous attention mostly focused on the acidity (H⁺) responding to the solid conductance (ECM) of glacial ice, we introduce the alkalinity (OH⁻) of snow and ice to show how it responds to EC. Strong linear relationship was established between EC and OH⁻ for these snow pits and ice cores. Positive correlation is also established between EC and major cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺). Since the cations are known as the proxies for the intensity of mineral dust influx onto glaciers of the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, we believe that EC could be used as an indicator for the history of dust input in deep ice core study. In fact, records in Guliya ice core since the Little Ice Age (LIA) indicate that dust load in glacier may depend on the combination of temperature and humidity. “Cold-dry” combination favors the dust arising, and results in higher EC and OH⁻ values, while “warm-wet” combination prevents dust form and EC and OH⁻ values are lower. In the past century, with the atmospheric warming and precipitation increasing over the northern plateau, which means an atmospheric condition of dust decreasing, both EC and OH⁻ displayed rapid decline.     

Late Cenozoic Normal Faulting on the Western Side of Wenquan Graben, Central Qianghai-Xizang(Tibet) Plateau

INTRODUCTION ThesustainedcollisionoftheIndiaplateintotheEurasiaplatesince50MaBPgaverisetotheintenseCenozoictectonicdeformationandupliftingofmountainsintheQinghai Xizang(Tibet)Plateauanditsvicinityandhadafar reachingimpactonthegeomorphicpatternsandenvironm…     

Linkage of liquid conductivity of glacier ice with its alkalinity over the north Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau--Implication to the past dust recovery

Liquid conductivity (EC) measurement was conducted for the samples collected from several snow pits and ice cores over the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau, with their time range covering seasonal, decadal and centennial scales. Unlike the previous attention mostly focused on the acidity (H+) responding to the solid conductance (ECM) of glacial ice, we introduce the alkalinity (OH?) of snow and ice to show how it responds to EC. Strong linear relationship was established between EC and OH? for these snow pits and ice cores. Positive correlation is also established between EC and major cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+). Since the cations are known as the proxies for the intensity of mineral dust influx onto glaciers of the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, we believe that EC could be used as an indicator for the history of dust input in deep ice core study. In fact, records in Guliya ice core since the Little Ice Age (LIA) indicate that dust load in glacier may depend on the combination of temperature and humidity. "Cold-dry" combination favors the dust arising, and results in higher EC and OH- values, while "warm-wet" combination prevents dust form and EC and OH- values are lower. In the past century, with the atmospheric warming and precipitation increasing over the northern plateau, which means an atmospheric condition of dust decreasing, both EC and OH- displayed rapid decline.     

用近垂直方法提取莫霍面——以六盘山深地震反射剖面为例

根据近垂直地震反射原理和Moho面上下深地震反射资料频率低的特征,运用深地震反射资料的近垂直反射数据,通过静校正、资料净化、共检波域叠加等叠前和叠后处理技术,对六盘山莫霍面结构进行成像.初步结果显示出横过六盘山莫霍面起伏、断错的结构特征.六盘山东侧的鄂尔多斯地块莫霍面东高西低、变化平缓、结构完整;靠近六盘山前缘莫霍面错断,可能与壳内走滑作用有关;西侧的青藏高原东北缘莫霍面西高东低,靠近六盘山呈现汇聚挤压、明显缩短的特征;六盘山复杂的莫霍面结构,揭示了六盘山地壳早期双向挤压、晚期山前侧向走滑的构造图像.     

青藏高原东缘下地壳流动的地震学证据

在2000年完成的穿过川西高原和四川盆地的深地震测深剖面揭示了川西高原的地壳结构具有地壳增厚(主要是下地壳增厚)、地壳平均速度低等特点,显示地壳的缩短与增厚的碰撞变形特征。根据川西高原上设置各爆炸点的记录截面图共同呈现PmP(莫霍界面反射波)弱能量的特点,推断在川西高原的下地壳介质具有强衰减(Qp=100~300)的性质。利用我国西部地区的宽频带地震台站的面波资料反演青藏高原及其邻区的地壳上地幔S波三维速度结构,在周期T=29.2s和T=42.9s的Rayleigh波群速度分布图上,显示了青藏高原东部(包括川西高原)呈现大范围的低速异常。多方面的结果表明,地震学方法为当前流行的下地壳流动模型提供了深部证据。     

Present-day tectonic movement in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) plateau as revealed by earthquake activity

Characteristics of present-day tectonic movement in the northeastern margin of Qinghai-Xizang plateau (Tibetan) are studied based on earthquake data. Evidence of earthquake activity shows that junctures between blocks in this area consist of complicated deformation zones. Between the Gansu-Qinghai block and Alxa block there is a broad compressive deformation zone, which turns essentially to be a network-like deformation region to the southeast. The Liupanshan region, where the Gansu-Qinghai block contacts the Ordos block, is suffering from NE-SW compressive deformation. Junction zone between the Ordos and Alxa block is a shear zone with sections of variable trend. The northwestern and southeastern marginal region of the Ordos is under NNW-SSE extension. The above characteristics of present-day tectonic deformation of the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang plateau may be attributed to the northeastward squeezing of the plateau and the resistance of the Ordos block, as well as the southeastward extrusion of the plateau materials. Foundation item: State Natural Science Foundation of China (49732090) and the Development Program on National Key Basic Researches under the Project Mechanism and Prediction of Continental Strong Earthquakes (95-13-02-05). Contribution No. 00FE2003, Institute of Geophysics, China Seismological Bureau.     

Present-day tectonic movement in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) plateau as revealed by earthquake activity

IntroductionAccording to the division of Neo-tectonically active blocks northeastern Qinghai-Xizang (abbreviated as QX thereafter) plateau is a juncture region where 3 intra-continental subplates, the Qinghai-Xizang, Xinjiang and North China subplate, meet with each other (DING, 1991). The subplates generally consist of blocks. Specifically, around the Yinchuan-Haiyuan (quasi-trijuncture( (TIAN, DING, 1998), where the 3 subplates meet, to the south locates the Gansu-Qinghai (GQ) blo…     

工程爆破场地地震动强度预测研究

本文介绍了爆破地震动强度的预测方法和该领域研究的国内外现状,以岭澳核电站场地为例,利用该场地土石方工程爆破时实监测获得的大量实验数据进行统计回归分析,提出了一种估计(折算)爆破药量的方法,给出预测爆破地震动加速度、速度、的经验公式。按此地震动衰减规律并结合时实监测数据指导爆破,确保大亚湾核电站的安全运行。这种折算爆破药量的方法和预测爆破地震动强度的经验公式对指导工程爆破具有重要参考价值。     

Joint exploration of crustal structure in Fuzhou basin and its vicinities by deep seismic reflection and high-resolution refraction as well as wide-angle reflection/refraction

~~Joint exploration of crustal structure in Fuzhou basin and its vicinities by deep seismic reflection and high-resolution refraction as well as wide-angle reflection/refraction1.Ma,X.Y.,The Atlas of Lithospheric Dynamics of China(in Chinese),Beijing:Atlas Publishing Company,1989,1-68. 2.Liao,Q.L.,Wang,Z.M.,Wang,P.L.et al.,Explosion-generated earthquake study on crustal deep structure in Fuzhou-Quanzhou-Shantou region,Acta Geophysica Sinica(in Chinese),1988,31(3):270-280. 3.L…