Apparent stress scaling and statistical trends

Statistical relations between different earthquake parameters, such as M₀ (seismic moment), E_S (seismic energy), τ_a (apparent stress), A (rupture area), g (average slip acceleration), are investigated. For this purpose, a kinematic earthquake model representing averaged earthquake rupture process is formulated. The model implies a scaling relationship for τ_a as a function of three other parameters, related to kinematic (M₀), geometric (A) and material (g) source characteristics, which, according to the model, can change independently. This scaling relation is used to explain statistical trends that characterize different earthquake data sets (including micro-, small, moderate and large events) plotted in the log τ_a − log M₀ space, and to determine the area in this space, where typical earthquakes occur. The scaling relationship is interpreted in terms of the apparent stress minimum (i.e., the most uniform among the possible earthquake rupture patterns). It is concluded that, although the apparent stress increases on an average with increasing seismic moment, small and large earthquakes are essentially similar.     

Analysis of induced seismicity for stress field determination and pore pressure mapping

The focal mechanisms of some one hundred microseismic events induced by various water injections have been determined. Within the same depth interval, numerous stress measurements have been conducted with the HTPF method. When inverted simultaneously, the HTPF data and the focal plane solutions help determine the complete stress field in a fairly large volume of rock (about 15×10⁶ m³). These results demonstrate that hydraulically conductive fault zones are associated with local stress heterogeneities. Some of these stress heterogeneities correspond to local stress concentrations with principal stress magnitudes much larger than those of the regional stress field. They preclude the determination of the regional stress field from the sole inversion of focal mechanisms. In addition to determining the regional stress field, the integrated inversion of focal mechanisms and HTPF data help identify the fault plane for each for each of the focal mechanisms. These slip motions have been demonstrated to be consistent with Terzaghi's effective stress principle and a Coulomb friction law with a friction coefficient ranging from 0.65 to 0.9. This has been used for mapping the pore pressure in the rock mass. This mapping shows that induced seismicity does not outline zones of high flow rate but only zones of high pore pressure. For one fault zone where no significant flow has been observed, the local pore pressure has been found to be larger than the regional minimum principal stress but no hydraulic fracturing has been detected there.     

Apparent stress and stress drop for intraplate earthquakes and tectonic stress in the plates

The magnitude of shear stress in the lithosphere is bounded from below by the apparent stress and stress drop during intraplate earthquakes. Apparent stresses and stress drops for a number of mid-plate earthquakes are calculated from the earthquake magnitude, SH wave amplitude spectra, and estimates of the length of the fault zone. Apparent stresses vary between 0.1 and 2 bars, ifm _b is used as a measure of seismic energy, and stress drops lie between 2 and 70 bars. There is no systematic difference in either apparent stress or stress drop between these intraplate events and typical plate boundary earthquakes. These bounds on intraplate shear stresses are consistent with the inference from current models of plate tectonic driving forces that regional stress differences in the plates are typically on the order of 100 bars. The highest stress drops measured for midplate earthquakes under this model represent nearly total release of local tectonic stress.     

Moment-tensor solutions estimated using optimal filter theory: global seismicity, 2001

Moment-tensor solutions, estimated using optimal filter theory, are listed for 290 moderate-to-large size earthquakes that occurred during 2001.     

Scaling of Reduced Energy or Apparent Stress and Its Seismological Significance

Comparison between the NEIC broadband radiated energy catalogue and the Harvard CMT catalogue provides information about apparent stres.In spite of its significant uncertainties and limited relability, the clues obtained from this comparison seem interestiin in the physics of earthquakes.Scaling of apparent stress provides information about the dynamic friction along an earthquake fault.Relation between reduced energy and seismic moment implies that for strike-slip earthquakes,velocity-dependent friction plays a predominant role,while for non-strike-slip earthquakes,slip-dependent friction is predominant.It is also found that strike-slip events with extremely low apparent stress tend to occur“in single”,which is applied to the prediction of the seismic tendency following the 2001 Qinghai-Xizang(Tibet) borderMW7.8 earthquake.     

利用全波形匹配方法确定水力压裂诱发地震震源机制

准确确定水力压裂诱发地震的震源机制对于描述裂缝破裂类型以及工区地应力状态十分重要.本文采用全波形匹配的方法确定诱发地震震源机制解,在拟合波形的同时对实际数据P波初动极性和纵横波振幅比也进行匹配,并在此基础上发展了一种基于邻域算法分级优化确定震源机制解的新方法.新方法的优势在于它对解具有更强的约束,并且能够解决现有方法中存在的权值系数选择问题.合成数据测试结果表明新方法能够得到可靠的震源机制解.本文将该方法应用于国内某页岩气田水力压裂诱发地震监测数据,反演结果表明诱发地震的震源类型以走滑破裂为主,表明该地区的最大水平主应力大于垂直主应力.

     

The reservoir-associated earthquakes of April 1983 in western Thailand: Source modeling and implications for induced seismicity

On 22 April 1983, a very large area of Thailand and part of Burma were strongly shaken by a rare earthquake (m _b=5.8,M _s=5.9). The epicenter was located at the Srinagarind reservoir about 190 km northwest of Bangkok, a relatively stable continental region that experienced little previous seismicity. The main shock was preceded by some foreshocks and followed by numerous aftershocks. The largest foreshock ofm _b=5.2 occurred 1 week before the main shock, and the largest aftershock ofm _b=5.3 took place about 3 hours after the main shock. Focal mechanisms of the three largest events in this earthquake sequence have been studied by other seismologists using firts-motion data. However, the solutions for the main shock and the largest aftershock showed significant inconsistency with known surface geology and regional tectonics. We reexamined the mechanisms of these three events by using teleseismicP-andS-waveforms and through careful readings ofP-wave first motions. The directions of theP axes in our study range from NNW-SSE to NNE-SSW, and nodal planes strike in the NW-SE to about E-W in agreement with regional tectonics and surface geology. The main shock mechanism strikes 255°, dips 48°, and slips 63.5°. The fault motions during the main shock and the foreshock are mainly thrust, while the largest aftershock has a large strike-slip component. The seismic moment and the stress drop of the mainshock are determined to be 3.86×10²⁴ dyne-cm and 180 bars, respectively. The occurrence of these thrust events appears to correlate with the unloading of the Srinagarind reservoir. The focal depths of the largest foreshock, the main shock, and the largest aftershock are determined to be 5.4 km, 8 km, and 22.7 km, respectively, from waveform modeling and relative location showing a downward migration of hypocenters of the three largest events during the earthquake sequence. Other characteristics of this reservoir-induced earthquake sequence are also discussed.     

由宽频带辐射能量目录和地震矩目录给出的视应力及其地震学意义

对NEIC宽频带地震辐射能量目录和哈佛矩心矩张量（CMT）目录的比较，给出了关于视应力的一些可能是有意义的结果，尽管目前的结果误差仍很大，可靠性也是有限的，但这种比较所提供的线索却颇值得注意，视应力的计算给出关于地震断层面上非线性动摩擦函数的线索，能量／地震矩之比随地震大小的变化表明，在BK模型框架下，对于走滑型地城,依赖于滑动速度的摩擦似乎占主要地位，而对于非走滑型地震，依赖于位移的摩擦似乎占主要地位，主震和余震的能量／地震矩之比的比较表明，对于走滑型地震，余震的视应力平均地说来低于主震的视应力，而对于非直滑型地震，余震的视应力即有高于主震的也有低于主震的，这对于障碍体和凹凸模式的讨论及模型中地震破裂停止条件的设置可能具有一定的参考意义。     

Source parameters and stress release of seismic sequences occurred in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (Northeastern Italy) and in Western Slovenia

The source parameters of the major events of a swarm and of two seismic sequences, occurred in the Friuli area (Northeastern Italy) and in Western Slovenia, were estimated. The Claut swarm (C96) occurred since the end of January to June 1996, with a M_D 4.3 major shock and it appears composed of three sub-sequences. The two sequences are the Kobarid sequence (K98) started on April 12, 1998 with a M_D 5.6 mainshock and the M.te Sernio (S02) sequence caused by the February 14, 2002 earthquake (M_D = 4.9). Acceleration and velocity data recorded by the local seismic network of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimenale (OGS) and corrected for attenuation, were employed to estimate seismic moments and radiated energies. Source dimensions were inferred from the computed corner frequencies and the stress release was estimated from the Brune stress drop, the apparent stress and the RMS stress drop. On the whole, seismic moments range from 1.7 × 10¹² to 1.1 × 10¹⁷ N m, and radiated energies are in the range 10⁶–10¹³ J. Brune stress drops are scattered and do not show any evidence of a self-similarity breakdown for sources down to 130 m radius. The radiated seismic energy scales as a function of seismic moment, with a slope of the scaling relation that decreases for increasing seismic moments.The mechanism of stress release was analyzed by computing the ɛ parameter of Zuniga [Zuniga, R., 1993. Frictional overshoot and partial stress drop. Which one? Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 83, 939–944]. The K98 and S02 sequences are characterized by a wide range of the ɛ parameter with stress drop mechanism varying from partial locking to overshoot cases. The ɛ values of the C96 swarm are more homogeneous and close to the Orowan's condition. The radiated seismic energy and the ratio of stress drop between mainshock and aftershocks appear different among the analyzed cases. We therefore investigated the relationship between the stress parameters of the main shock and the energy radiated by the aftershock sequences. For this purpose, we also estimated the source parameters of two other sequences occurred in the area, with mainshocks of M_D 4.1 and 5.1, respectively. We found a positive correlation between the Brune stress drop of the mainshock and the ratio between the radiated energy of the mainshock and the summation of the energies radiated by the aftershocks.     

Source parameters and scaling relationships in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Northeastern Italy) region

We estimated the source parameters of 53 local earthquakes (2.0<M_L<5.7) of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Northeastern Italy) area, recorded by the short-period local seismic network of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), in the period 1995-2003. Data were selected on the basis of high quality locations and focal mechanisms. Standard H/V spectral ratios (HVRS) of the three-component stations of the network were performed in order to assess local amplifications, and only stations showing HVRS not exceeding two were considered for the source parameters estimation. Both velocity and acceleration data were used to compute the SH-wave spectra. Observed spectra were corrected for attenuation effects using an independent regional estimate of the quality factor Q and a station dependent estimate of the spectral decay parameter k. Only earthquakes with M_L>3.0 recorded with a sampling rate of 125 cps were used to compute k, thus allowing to visualize a linear trend of the high frequency acceleration spectrum up to 40-50 Hz. SH-wave spectra, corrected for attenuation, showed an ω⁻² shape allowing a good fit with the Brune model. Seismic moments and Brune radii ranged between 1.5×10¹² and 1.1×10¹⁷  N m and between 0.1 and 2.7 km respectively. We obtained M_o=1.1×10¹⁷  N m for the seismic moment of the Kobarid (SLO) main shock, in good agreement with the Harvard CMT solution (M_o=3.5×10¹⁷  N m). Brune stress drops were confined to the range from 0.07 to 5.31 MPa, with an average value of 0.73 MPa and seem to be approximately constant over five orders of magnitude of seismic moment. Radiated seismic energy computed from two nearby stations scales with seismic moment according to , and apparent stress values are between 0.02 and 4.26 MPa. The observed scatter of Brune stress drop data allowed to hypothesize a scaling relation between seismic moment and corner frequency in order to accommodate both Brune stress drop and apparent stress scalings. No systematic differences are evidenced between stress parameters of earthquakes with different focal mechanisms. As a consequence, a relation of the seismic stress release with the strength of rocks can be hypothesized. A high correlation (r>0.9) of Brune stress drop is found with both apparent stress and RMS stress drop, according to and respectively.     

Evidence for induced seismicity in the vicinity of Fierza reservoir,Northern Albania

The reservoir of Fierza on the Drini River, Northern Albania, is Albania's largest reservoir and it is one of the world's largest reservoirs of high dams (reservoir volume at maximum water level, 2.8 * 10⁹ m³; dam height, 167 m and dam capacity 8 * 10⁶ m³). We compare pre-and postimpounding seismicity of the area surrounding the Fierza reservoir. An increase of seismic microactivity was observed after the impounding of the reservoir. More than 300 microearthquakes, occurred in the immediate vicinity of the main body of the reservoir, with local magnitude ranging between 1.3 and 3.6. A significant change of theb value in the magnitude-frequency relationship was observed. One swarm of microtremors occurred in the northern part of the reservoir on April 4–5, 1981, where an alteration of the tensor of natural tectonic stresses is revealed. The theoretical additional stress and displacement induced by water-load in the bank of the reservoir were estimated for four cross-profiles of the reservoir area and the maximum values resulted near the location of the above swarm.     

湖南地震视应变与地震的对应关系分析

利用湖南省地震台网记录到的资料,研究了1970年以来湖南地区五次ML≥4.0级地震的地震视应变场的分布和时空演化特征.ML≥4.0以下的地震视应变与震级相关性较小,ML≥4.0以上地震的视应变值随震级增加呈非线形快速增大,说明:湖南地区地震视应变的时空演变与地震具有较好的对应关系.     

紫坪铺水库地区蓄水前后视应力标度率变化研究

本文利用紫坪铺水库台网记录到的波形资料,计算了2004～2008年170个ML≥1.0级地震的震源参数.紫坪铺水库震源参数计算结果与其他大陆地区有明显不同:(1)拐角频率远低于其他大陆地区结果,表明库区地震波传播经过了较强的衰减过程;(2)视应力计算结果比其他地区小3个数量级,可能是由于库区地震波的高频成分衰减强烈,低估了能量集中在高频的小地震的地震辐射能量.分析了蓄水前后拐角频率和地震矩以及视应力和地震矩关系(视应力标度率)变化,结果表明:相同地震矩的地震蓄水后拐角频率增加,地震高频成分相对丰富;蓄水前视应力与地震矩的关系不明显,蓄水后视应力随地震矩的增加而增加.视应力标度率的改变可能是蓄水后地震震源物理过程逐渐改变的直接反映.     

2008年汶川MS8.0地震前龙门山—岷山构造带的地震活动性参数与地震视应力分布

本文利用四川区域台网最近30多年的地震资料,计算了2008年四川汶川MS8.0地震前沿龙门山—岷山构造带的多个地震活动性参数(包括震级-频度关系中的a、b与a/b值,复发间隔Tr值),同时,计算了震前2年多的时间内ML≥3.5地震的视应力. 在此基础上分析了地震活动性参数值和地震视应力的空间分布与汶川主震破裂范围、MS≥5.0余震分布的关系. 主要结果表明:①汶川地震前,沿龙门山—岷山构造带的地震活动性参数与地震视应力的分布均存在显著的空间差异. 其中,龙门山断裂带中-北段的绵竹—茂县段与江油—平武段具有远低于区域平均值的显著异常低b值、低a值、相对较高a/b值以及较小复发间隔Tr值的参数值组合,反映这两个断裂段在汶川主震之前已处于高应力闭锁状态,且发生强震的概率明显高于其他段落. 这两个段落成为汶川主震破裂的中心段落和破坏严重的地段; ②汶川地震前,位于前述两断裂段之间的龙门山断裂带北川段具有较高的b值与a值、较低a/b值的参数值组合,显示出应力积累水平不高的状态. 汶川主震后,北川断裂段的余震强度与频度均偏低,缺少MS≥5.0的余震; ③地震活动性参数与视应力显示汶川地震之前龙门山断裂带南西段的应力积累水平明显低于中-北段,这种差异可能与汶川主震破裂沿断裂带中-北段呈北东向单侧扩展有关. 另外,地震活动性参数值组合也反映龙门山断裂带南西段近期发生大地震的可能性较小.     

Corresponding Relation Between the Space-time Evolution of Seismic Apparent Strain and the Region of Strong Earthquakes in Yunnan

On the basis of our predecessors' research,we study the distribution and the space-time evolution characteristics of the seismic apparent strain field in Yunnan since the 1970's using the seismic data of Yunnan and its surrounding areas.The result shows that there is a rather strong corresponding relationship between the anomaly region of seismic apparent strain and strong earthquakes.In the nine earthquakes studied,anomaly areas of seismic apparent strain had appeared before eight earthquakes,including five occurring in the anomaly region and three on the edge.Finally,the investigative result is demonstrated primarily.     

Present-day seismicity,stress field and crustal deformation of Egypt

In this study we investigate present-day seismicity and crustal deformation of Egypt based on a comprehensive earthquake catalog from 1900 to 2004 by focal mechanism stress inversion and by recent GPS observations. Spatial distribution of earthquake epicenters indicates that Egypt has been suffered from both interplate and intraplate earthquakes. Most earthquake activity (more than 70%) has been concentrated in northern Egypt along the geologically documented borders of Sinai subplate (northern Red Sea and its two branches Suez rift and Aqaba–Dead Sea transform). The majority of inland earthquake focal mechanisms in Egypt are normal with strike-slip component or strike-slip faulting events. Only a small minority, namely four events, exhibits reverse faulting. The inversion method of Gephart and Forsyth (1984) was applied to calculate the orientation of the principle stress axes and the shape of the stress tensor. The best fitting tensor in Egypt shows homogeneity stress field. The tension stress regime is dominant in northern Egypt. The stress directions are well resolved by the 95% confidence limits, the relative stress magnitude has a value of about 0.3. However, along southern Egypt the strike-slip regime is dominant. The shape factor (R-value) is 0.5, which means that the deviatoric components of σ₁ and σ₃ are of the same magnitude, but of opposite signs. The average horizontal velocity of GPS stations in Egypt is 5.15± 1.1 mm/year in mostly NNW direction. The results of deformation analysis indicate that the northern Egypt is deformed more than the southern part. Only the Egyptian-Mediterranean coastal–Nile Delta zone dominates as a compression deformation area. However, an extensional deformation has been observed throughout the rest of country. This means that the relative motion of African plate with respect to both Eurasian and Arabian has highly controlled the deformation processes in Egypt.     

鲁东地区视应力时空变化特征分析

利用山东数字地震台网记录到的山东东部地区2008年以来的地震波形资料,在去除地震序列的余震之后,采用Brune模型,并结合遗传算法反演计算了225 次Mr≥2. 0地震的视应力,讨论了视应力与震级的关系,分析研究了视应力的时空变化特征,并通过视应力的时空变化来研究该区应力状态的特征。结果表明:鲁东地区中小地震的视应力范围在0.06~3.91 MPa,平均应力水平在0.31 MPa,可作为该区的背景应力水平;视应力与震级呈正相关关系,随震级的增加而升高,利用稳态回归拟合初步得到适合于该区的定量统计关系;计算的视应力值减去由震级得到的理论视应力,去除震级的相关性干扰,得到差视应力,能更真实的反应该地区的应力变化特征;视应力的时间变化显示鲁东地区目前正处于应力的积累增强阶段,可能与近期鲁东地区震群频发有关;空间分布显示目前高视应力集中区主要分布在沂沭断裂带安丘段附近和烟台附近地区,对于山东地区年度危险区的判定有一定意义。     

2016年门源6.4级地震前视应力变化特征

基于科学台阵的观测资料,计算了2016年门源6.4级地震前约2年震源区80km范围内105次1.5≤M_L≤3.3地震的视应力。结果显示,研究区域2015年1月13日～2016年1月20日的地震视应力明显高于2014年3月23日～2015年1月12日,视应力其特征表现为震前1年明显升高—明显降低—临震前2个月小幅升高,2个时段扣除震级影响的规准化视应力对比表明,震前1年研究区域应力水平相对升高,规准化视应力空间分布图像显示,皇城-双塔断裂附近存在显著高值异常区,距离震中约48km。视应力异常、平安水位和乐都气氡破年变异常表明,研究区域附近震前应力水平较高,与2016年门源6.4级地震前震源区应力场增强存在较好的对应关系,是1次测震和前兆异常显著的震例。视应力异常可在较长时间显示高应力水平状态和异常地点,前兆破年变异常可以从时间紧迫性给出判断,因此,结合可信度较高的测震和前兆异常可以给出一定程度的地震预测。     

地震视应力在中国大陆西部强震趋势预测中的应用

以中国大陆西部(20°~50°N, 73°~105°E)为例, 以中国地震台网中心月报目录为基础, 参照美国哈佛大学(CMT)逐个筛选出1990年1月1日至2005年12月31日中国大陆191个地震作为样本, 对用哈佛大学提供的地震矩和震级能量公式计算的视应力值σ_app1与完全由震级经验公式估算出的地震矩和地震辐射能量计算出的视应力值σ_app2进行了对比分析。 在此基础上, 通过对1970年以来中国大陆7级以上强震的震例总结, 对地震视应力异常区与强震发生地区的关系进行了研究。 并结合钻孔应力、 应变学科在年度预测中对中国大陆西部强震发生地区的预测情况进行了R值评分。 结果表明: ① 当震级上限固定时, σ_app1与σ_app2的差值序列之方差, 表现出随着震级下限增大而增大的特征。 在3.5≤M_S≤6.0区间内, σ_app1与σ_app2拟合程度较好。 ② 地震视应力异常区的变化与迁移可能是构造大区应力、 应变场中显著应力变化区的变化与迁移的反映, 具有图像直观、 量化、 预测区间有限等优点, 可用于强震发生地区的预测, R值约为0.35。 并对强震发生地区趋势预测的总体思路进行了有意义的讨论。     

中国大陆现代构造应力场与强震活动

依据应力性状和力源特征,中国大陆现代构造应力场可划分为四级应力区.它们分别是2个一级应力区、4个二级应力区、5个三级应力区和26个四级应力区.通过分析中国大陆现代构造应力分区与强震活动之问的关系,初步获得以下结论:①构造应力作用强烈和复杂的地区是强震频发的地区;②应力区边界是强震集中发生的地带;③应力方向、应力结构类型...