Recent crustal horizontal movement in the Chinese mainland

IntroductionSupportedbytheNationaIClimbingProject"RecentCrustalMovementandGeodynamicResearch",acrustalmovementmonitoringnetworkdistributedinChinesemainlandhasbeenmeasuredfortWotimesinl994andl996.Thenetconsistsof22stationsthatarelocatedonsev-eralmajortectonicblocksinChinesemainland.ExceptNanchongstationwhichwasdestroyedatsometimebetWeenl994and1996andre-settledinl996,alltheother2lstationswereoccupiedfortwotimes.BasedontheresuItSobtainedfromcarefulpre-processingofGPSobservations,therecent…     

Current crustal movement in Chinese mainland

The quantification of tectonic deformation in the Eastern and Central Asia is of great significance for the study on global plate motion and lithospheric dynamics. In the past four years, the velocity field of horizontal crustal movement for the Chinese mainland has been established for the first time thanks to the intensified GPS measure-ments and its improved accuracy. The velocity field derived from GPS measurements delineates the patterns of tectonic deformation in the Chinese mainland in the unprecedented detail, and thus reveals the new features of the ongoing tectonic process resulted from the collision of Indian plate to Eurasian plate. Meanwhile, the surface offset induced by two strong earthquakes occurred in Chinese mainland was sampled precisely using InSAR technique.     

Horizontal crustal movement in Chinese mainland from 1999 to 2001

The paper introduces the horizontal crustal movement obtained from GPS observations in the regional networks (including the basic network and the fiducial network) of the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) carried out in 1999 and 2001. This paper is characterized by the acquisition of the horizontal displacement velocities during the period from 1999 to 2001 at the observation stations in the regional networks with datum definition of a group of stable stations with small mutual displacements in east China. Based on the most detailed map of horizontal crustal movement in Chinese mainland, the division of blocks, their displacements and deformations are studied. An approach to analysis of the intensity of the horizontal crustal deformation is proposed. The general characteristics of the recent horizontal crustal movement in Chinese mainland and that before the Kunlunshan earthquake of M=8.1 on November 14, 2001 are analyzed. Foundation item: The National Development and Programming Project for Key Basic Research (95-13-03-07).     

Horizontal crustal movement in Chinese mainland from 1999 to 2001

Introduction In the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) there are 25 fiducialstations, 56 basic stations and 1 000 regional stations. They are scattered on 10 major blocks inChinese mainland with high density of observation stations on the blocks of high seismic activityin the regional networks. 10 major blocks or regions (they will be referred to as blocks in the paper,a letter is used as a symbol for each block) were divided during the design of the regionalnetwo…     

Preliminary division of active block boundary in Chinese mainland based on recent vertical crustal movement

IntroductionSituated in the southeastern part of Eurasia Plate and surrounded by the India Plate, Eurasia Plate, Pacific Plate and Philippine Sea Plate, Chinese mainland especially the area of Qinghai-Xizang (Qingzang) Plateau and the south-north tectonic zone is the area with the most intensive neotectonic deformation. The main component of tectonic activity in Chinese mainland is active blocks. Therefore, it is quite important to study active blocks in the research of tectonic activit…     

Crustal movement in Chinese mainland observed from 1998 to 1999

IntroductionTheCrustalMovementObservationNetworkofChina(CMONOC)isoneofmajorscientificprojectsinChinaduringthe9thFive-YearPlan.ThefirstGPSobservationsof25fiducialstationsand56basicstationsinthenetworkwerecompletedfromAugust26toSeptember6,1998andallthe81stationswereobservedsimultaneously.25fiducialstationshavebeenincontinuousoperationsincelateMarch1999.Inaddition,dataofcontinuousobservationfromtheIGS(InternationalGPSService)stationXIANinXi(anarealsoavailable.Figure1showsthelocation…     

characteristics of recent crustal movement in the north section of north-south seismic belt

Tectonic activity is intense and destructive earthquakes occur frequently in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt(NSSB). After the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the North-South Seismic Belt enters a new period of high seismicity. On July 22, 2013, the Minxian-Zhangxian earthquake occurred, which broke the 10-years seismic quiescence of magnitude 6 of the area, indicating an increasing trend of strong earthquakes in the region. Earthquake is the product of crustal movement. Understanding the dynamics of the process of crustal movement may provide basis for earthquake prediction. GPS measurement can provide high-precision, large-scale, quasi-real-time quantitative crustal movement data, that allows us to explore the evolution of crustal movement and its relationship with earthquake, thus providing the basis for determining the seismic situation. Since 2009, the density of mobile GPS measurement stations has significantly improved in the Chinese mainland, and moreover, the Wenchuan earthquake has brought about adjustment of the regional crustal deformation regime. So the introduction of the latest repeat GPS data is important for understanding the features of crustal movement in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt. In this paper, we obtained the GPS velocity field, fault profile and baseline time series and analyzed the dynamics of recent crustal movement in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt using the 1999a-2014a GPS data of mobile and continuous GPS measurement stations. The results show that: the Qilianshan Fault has a high strain accumulation background. There are locked portions on the Liupanshan Fault, especially in the region of Jingning, Pingling, Dingxi, Longxi. In 2004-2009a, the degree of locking of the Liupanshan Fault got higher. In 2009—2013a, crustal movement on the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt weakened compared with 1999-2004, 2004-2009, and showed some features as follows: ① The velocity field weakened more markedly near the Qilian-Haiyuan-Liupanshan faults; ②The velocity decreased more significantly in the region north of Qilianshan-Haiyuan Fault than that of the south, resulting in enhanced thrust deformation on the Qilianshan Fault in 2009-2013a and the decreased sinistral shear deformation on the Qilianshan Fault and Haiyuan Fault; ③the velocity field decreased more remarkably at 50km west of Liupanshan Fault, compared to the east region, which led to the locked range on the Liupanshan Fault extending to the range of 100km near the fault zone during 2009-2013 from the previous locked range of 50km near the fault. The GPS baseline time series analysis also reveals a number of structural features in the region: Yinchuan Graben is continuing extending, and the extension in the west is stronger than that in the east. On the southern end of Yinchuan Graben, the deformation is very small.     

Horizontal crustal movement in Chinese mainland before and after the great Kunlun Mountain M=8.1 earthquake in 2001

Introduction The great Kunlun Mountain earthquake occurred on November 14, 2001 on the border be-tween Xinjiang and Qinghai in west China (36.2N, 90.9E). It was the largest earthquake oc-curred in Chinese mainland in the last 50 years. The Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) established in 1998 mainly for the purpose of earthquake prediction with only 25 fiducial stations for continuous GPS observations, has recorded the precious information of the crustal movement …     

中国大陆现今地壳水平运动基本特征

介绍利用中国地壳运动观测网络基本网、基准网1998年和2000年GPS观测结果所获得的中国大陆地壳水平运动信息．简要介绍这两次GPS观测概况，以及用GAMIT / GLOBK软件对所获得GPS观测数据的处理及精度分析．基准网与基本网各年观测结果得到的网内点位精度、水平分量精度平均为2mm左右，高程分量精度平均为5mm 左右，由两期观测得到的水平位移分量的精度平均为3mm 左右． 得到的1998年9月初至2000年6月中旬基本网、基准网中的地壳运动，包括以位于东部的一组稳定点为基准的各观测站位移、网内各部分的应变及部分地区的旋转量．根据所获得的我国大陆较为完整而详细的地壳水平运动图象，分析了中国大陆现今地壳运动的主要特征．在所述观测期间，我国东部地区变形较小，相对较为稳定．相对位于东部的稳定点组，东北块体向北运动，位移量约10mm；华南块体向东南运动，位移量约9mm．相对东部地区，西北部新疆地区以北西向运动为主，位移量约26mm；西南西藏地区以向北运动为主，位移量约32mm；西藏东部与云南地区形成非常明显的顺时针旋转构造运动，旋转中心位于26.5N，95.5E，旋转量为0.0045，旋转位移平均为12mm 左右．我国中部南北地震带是一强烈而复杂的变形带．GPS测量结果表明，印度板块向北挤压是影响我国地壳运动的主要因素．      

Current crustal motion and deformation in the Chinese mainland and its surrounding area determined from GPS data

Based on the geodetic data taken from the National GPS Network established by China Climbing Program "Investigation of Crust Motion and Geodynamics in Modern Time",we derived the movement velocities of the GPS sites. In terms of the power series expansion of a rotation function for horizontal velocities on a spherical surface proposed by Haines and Holt (1993), we computed the horizontal velocity and strain-rate field. We preliminarily studied the appearances and characteristics of the present-day crustal movement and deformation in the Chinese mainland with the computed results. The researches demonstrated: ① The present-day crustal movement and deformation in the Chinese mainland are being jointly controlled by Indian, Pacific and Philippines Ocean Plates and Siberia-Mongolia block, and these three large plates and block form a situation of tripartite confrontation, but Indian Plate seems to play a leading role; ② The North-South Earthquake Zone plays an important adjustment role in the present-day crustal movement and deformation process, displaying clear characteristics of demarcation line of tectonics in large areas; ③ There seems to be another adjustment zone along the latitude line approximate N35°, but its characteristics are less obvious than that of the former; ④ Dynamic actions of these three large plates and block on the Chinese mainland are dynamic stable; appearing in stable push-press velocities. These results are generally accorded with the results determined from geology, geophysics, and seismology. By the contrast with seismicities, it appears preliminarily that there is some corresponding relation between intense shear strain zone and future strong seismicity area, but this problem needs further examination of earthquake examples.     

Characteristics of horizontal crustal move-ment in Weihe basin and adjacent zones by GPS observation

Introduction GPS observation results provide high-accuracy and large-range crustal movement data with real time, which makes it possible to obtain the velocity field of current crustal movement in Chi-nese mainland within a short time and check the previous tectonic deformation model. Geoscien-tists at home and abroad have made a great number of researches on the crustal movement in Chi-nese mainland and have obtained many results in this field (JIANG, et al, 2001; WANG, et al, 2001; ZHA…     

利用高精度复测GPS网进行中国大陆区域地壳运动特征分析

本文利用高精度复测GPS网,用多面函数拟合的方法计算出中国大陆地壳运动速度场模型,得到了有实用价值的中国地壳平面运动整体速度场图像和垂直速率等值线图像,同时计算出ITRF97参考框架下中国大陆地壳运动的区域背景场,该局域背景场与NNR-NUVELlA、Sillard、Larson 等全球板块运动模型所提供的欧亚板块的欧拉极方向和旋转速率在量级和大趋势上是一致的.据此对全球框架下的中国大陆区域地壳运动特征进行分析.     

Horizontal crustal movement before the great Wenchuan earthquake obtained from GPS observations in the regional network

The great Wenchuan earthquake of M8.0 on May 12, 2008, occurred in an area with dense GPS observation stations in the regional network of the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC). Non-continuous observations were carried out at the 1 000 GPS stations of the regional network in 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2007. The horizontal displacements at GPS stations in the regional network before the Wenchuan earthquake show that the main driving tectonic force of the earthquake was the northward pushing of the Indian plate, added at the same time by the pushing of plates on the east and south. In comparison to the displacements in other regions, the horizontal displacements near and around the seismic area is characterized by diverging eastward displacements, that is, the stations to the north of the epicenter moved in the ENE direction while those to the south of epicenter moved in ESE direction with smaller displacements at stations near the epicenter. The accuracy of the estimated strain results is briefly discussed. In order to obtain the anomalous information before the earthquake, the methods of both best fits by trend surface and statistics have been used in the study for finding the future epicentral area from the strain accumulations in the regional network observed from 1999 to 2007 before the Wenchuan earthquake. Besides the epicentral area of the western Kunlun mountain pass earthquake of M8.1 in 2001, the results of best fits by trend surfaces of the strain accumulations from 1999 to 2007 in the regional network show that the Wenchuan earthquake occurred at the eastern fringe of a large area with relatively large accumulations of the first shear strains and also at the northeastern fringe of a smaller area with significant accumulated areal compressions. The statistics of the accumulations of the strain components demonstrates that they also showed anomalous distribution patterns in this area and its neighborhood with increasing accumulations of both shear strains and areal compressions.     

区域网GPS观测得到的2008年汶川M_S 8.0地震前的地壳水平运动

2008年5月12日汶川（31.0°N,103.4°E）MS8.0大地震发生在中国地壳运动观测网络区域网GPS观测站相当密集的地区．1000个站的GPS 非连续观测区域网分别在1999,2001,2004年和2007年作了4次观测．震前区域网GPS观测站得到的水平位移表明,汶川大地震主要力源是印度板块向北对中国大陆的挤压,但同时也受到东部与南部板块的挤压．与其它地区相比,震前震中附近水平位移最显著的特点是,汶川地震发生在南北地震带上位移分叉部位,即震中北部明显向东北位移,震中南部明显向东南位移,而震中附近的水平位移则明显小于其北面和南面的水平位移．简要讨论了应变计算结果的精度．为获取地震前的异常信息,分别采用趋势曲面拟合和统计方法研究了汶川地震前（1999—2007年）区域网的应变积累,寻找震中的大致区域．除了2001年昆仑山口西大地震震中及其周围地区外,1999—2007年震前区域网的应变积累的趋势曲面拟合表明,汶川地震发生在中国大陆第一剪应变积累大、范围最广的区域的东侧,且在此区域内积累较大的面压缩区的东北边缘．应变分量的统计分析表明,震前其分布在此区域及其附近同样有明显的异常,剪应变和面膨胀积累均增强．      

Elimination of effects of earthquake in monitoring crustal movement

Monitoring crustal movements is important in understanding the earth surface and in developing theories about plate tectonics. Plate tectonics describes earth crust which consists of a number of plates moving relative to one another. Global plate models suggest that plate movements are constant due to the fact that relative movements of plates were represented by averaged plate motion. However, if an earthquake occurs, the uniform movement of related plates does not follow the regular trend. In analysis by Kalman Filter, the effects of an earthquake occured within crustal movement monitoring period by geodetic method have been eliminated by a proposed approach, Fading Memory Filter. The proposed method was tested using a real/simulated data. The results of the test showed that the effect of a strong earthquake (M_w = 7.1) which had occurred in the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba was eliminated. Consequently, the proposed method is capable of removing or eliminating a suddan effect in monitoring crustal movements in the analysis by using the Kalman Filter.     

Aseismic negative dislocation model and deformation analysis of crustal horizontal movement during 1999~2001 in the northeast margin of Qinghai-Xizang block

Introduction So small is the hypocenter area of strong earthquake, but its formation is controlled by time-space evolution of present-day crustal movement in wider-range area, and related to motion and deformation of active blocks and their boundary faults. Aseismic negative dislocation model presented by Matsuura, et al (1986) is that, the relative motion between blocks driven by present-day crustal movement may be partly locked at the block …     

Aseismic negative dislocation model and deformation analysis of crustal horizontal movement during 1999——2001 in the northeast margin of Qinghai-Xizang block

Through numerical simulation for GPS data, aseism/c negative dislocation model for crustal horizontal movement during 1999-2001 in the northeast margin of Qinghai-Xizang block is presented, combined with the spatial distri-bution of apparent strain field in this area, the characteristics of motion and deformation of active blocks and their boundary faults, together with the place and intensity of strain accumulation are analyzed. It is shown that: a) 9 active blocks appeared totally clockwise motion from eastward by north to eastward by south. Obvious sinistral strike-slip and NE-NEE relative compressive motion between the blocks separated by Qilianshan-Haiyuan fault zone was discovered; b) 20 fault segments (most of them showed compression) locked the relative motion between blocks to varying degrees, among the total, the mid-east segment of Qilianshan fault (containing the place where it meets Riyueshan-Lajishan fault) and the place where it meets Haiyuan fault and Zhuanglanghe fault, more favored accumulation of strain. Moreover, the region where Riyueshan-Lajishan fault meets north boundary of Qaidam block may have strain accumulation to some degree, c) Obtained magnitude of block velocities and locking of their boundaries were less than relevant results for observation in the period of 1993-1999.     

华北地区现今水平运动场的动态特征

在整体无旋转基准的基础上, 采用了以提取中、 低频应变信息为主的连续应变模型, 处理并分析了《中国地壳运动观测网络》在华北地区400余个GPS测站的复测资料(1999—2001—2004年)和2006年130余个测站的复测资料, 获得了1999—2004年、 2004—2006年的相对运动速率以及2004—2006年偏离1999—2004年运动的位移结果。 结果表明: ① 华北地区非均匀应变比较明显, 不同时段的结果在空间上的表现形式也不一样; ② 前后两个时段的运动特征具有一定的不一致性; ③ 2006年存在着较明显的偏离位移, 并显示了右旋形变的迹象, 面应变表现为北、 中收缩, 南部膨胀的特征; ④ 近两年东西向的压性作用较前明显, 北京以南地区是运动的转化地区及面应变象限的准中心地区。 这可能表明, 在昆仑山口西8.1级地震之后, 华北地区又进入了常态能量的积累阶段。     

三峡重庆库区现今地壳形变特征分析

基于三峡重庆库区2008-2012年GPS观测资料,利用块体的整体旋转线性应变模型,首次获取了该地区的地壳水平运动及应变场特征.结果表明:三峡重庆库区主应变以压应变为主,方向近似为北西向;最大剪应变高值区集中分布在该地区的华蓥山断裂与金佛山断裂,量值均达到1.4×10-8;区域主压应力方向与大范围构造应力场基本一致,但方位角在华蓥山断裂与金佛山断裂两侧具有明显偏转的特征,反映出上述地区是三峡重庆区内的地壳构造活动区域.