The Brief Introduction to the April 14,2010 Yushu M7.1 Earthquake Sequence

<正>An earthquake with M7. 1 occurred in Yushu,Qinghai Province,China,at 07:49 a. m. on April 14,2010,according to the Chinese Seismic Station Network. The sequence is a fore-mainafter-shock type sequence. A foreshock with M4. 7 occurred 2 hours and 11 minutes before the main shock. There were 12 foreshocks and 2385 aftershocks until June 31,2010. In which,there are 21 aftershocks between M3. 0 and M3.     

Study on medium-short term earthquake forecast in Yunnan Province by precursory events

Introduction Yunnan is a very active region of earthquake in China. Since Yunnan Regional Seismological Network established in 1965, 37 years have past and thousands of seismic events have been recorded. Among them, 9 are great earthquakes of M7.0, more than 150 are moderately strong earthquakes of M =5.0~6.9 and about 6 000 are earthquakes of M3.0. Figure 1 shows the epicenter distribution of M3.5 earthquakes occurred in 1965~2002 in Yunnan region and Figure 2 the magnitude-frequency dis…     

The Deformation of Active Tectonic Blocks on the Chinese Mainland and Its Relationship with Seismic Activity

Based on the hypothesis of the active tectonic blocks on the Chinese continent and its adjacent regions (both the method of the DDA on a spherical surface and the GPS survey results observed from 1991 to 2001 are used), the movements and deformations of each active tectonicblock are calculated. The calculation results show that although the movements and deformations of active tectonic-blocks in the eastern region and in the western region of China are different, active tectonic blocks in the same active tectonic block region are coherent.Then, the relative velocities of the active tectonic-blocks‘ boundary zones are calculated, and the relationship between current crustal motion and strong seismic activities is discussed. Earthquakes (Ms≥7.0) on the Chinese continent since 1988 all occurred on boundary zones of active tectonic blocks with high slipping speed.     

Study on the Recent Tectonic Stress Field in the Yunnan Region

In this paper, using focal mechanism solutions of moderate-strong earthquakes in Yunnan and its adjacent areas, and based on the statistical analysis of the parameters of focal mechanism solutions, we discussed in detail the earthquake fault types and the characteristics of the modern tectonic stress field in the Yunnan region. The results show that most moderate-strong earthquakes occurring in the Yunnan region are of the strike-slip type, amounting to 80% of the total. Normal faulting and normal with strike-slip and reverse and reverse with strike-slip earthquakes is almost equivalent in proportion, about 8% each. The tectonic stress field of the Yunnan region is near-horizontal, and the dips of earthquake fault planes are large. There are three main dynamic sources acting on the Yunnan region: one is the NE, NNE and NNW-directed acting force from Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam; the second is the SE-SSE directed force from the Sichuan and Sichuan-Yunnan rhombus block and the third is the NW-NNW directed force from the South China block. These three acting forces have controlled the faulting behavior of the main faults and the characteristics of strong earthquake activity of Yunnan and its adjacent regions.     

Density Structure and Seismicity in Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Area

By analyzing the gravity,magnetic,seismic and drilling data,the authors in this paper calculate and construct the density structure of the crust and upper mantle along the Haoding-Chengde and Zhangjiakou-Tanggu profiles and residual gravity anomalies in the region.The compiled residual gravity anomalies g2 and g4 maps reflect qualitatively the spatial distribution of the density structure of the crustal "seismogenic layer" and the uppermost mantle layer at depth of 50-75 km in the region.In order to reveal the relationship between density structure and seismicity,a great number of statistic calculations and comparisons of the available data and the results indicate that the seismicity in the crustal "seismogenic layer" is characterized by block movement:moderate-small earthquakes occurred generally within the blocks,moderate-strong earthquakes mostly along the borders of the blocks,strong earthquakes mostly at the edges and corners of the blocks.And aftershocks of strong earthquakes tended to occur at o     

Tectonics and Seismicity of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon Region

The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon region is located in the frontal zone of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, where neo-tectonics and seismicity are intensive and closely related to each other. In the region, two sets of fault structures have developed, striking NNE-NE and NWW-NW, respectively. Investigation shows that they differ markedly in terms of scope, property, active times and intensity. The NWW-NW trending faults are large in size, and most are thrust and thrust strike-slip faults, formed in earlier times. The NEE-NE-strike faults are relatively small in size individually, with concentrated distribution, constituting the NNE-trending shear extensional fault zone, which is relatively younger with evident late Quaternary activities. Strong earthquakes occur mainly in the areas or zones of intensive differential movement of the Himalayas, e.g. along the deep and large fault zones around the crustal blocks. Most earthquakes of M≥7.0 are closely related to tectonics, where large-scale Holocene active faults are distributed with complicated fault geometry, or the faults of multiple directions intersect. Among them, earthquakes of M≥7.5 have occurred on the NW and NE-trending faults with a greater strike-slip component in the fault tectonic zones.     

ON THE VARIETY AND COMPLEXITY OF THE SHORT-TERM AND URGENT PRECURSORS OF THE TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE

The Tangshan earthquake(M=7.8)which occurred on July 28, 1976 is the greatest event among the modern catastrophes in China. It occurred in a region that was the most densely networked with seismic stations, a region that had the longest history in seismological work and had received     

Recent movement changes of main fault zones in the Sichuan-Yunnan region and their relevance to seismic activity

The Wenchuan earthquake occurred near the "triple junction" linking the Bayan Har block, the South China block, and the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block, and its influences on the surrounding blocks and the main fault zones in the Sichuan-Yunnan region, i.e., the block boundary zone, cannot be ignored. In this paper, changes of movement and stress of the fault zones before and after a strong earthquake were simulated based on the GPS repetition survey results recently obtained during 1999–2007, 2009–2011, and 2011–2013 with a two-dimensional finite-element contact model and the "block- loading" method. The results show that, before the Wenchuan earthquake, the movement of the Longmenshan fault zone was very slow and its compressive stress accumulated rapidly; after the Wenchuan earthquake, movements toward the E-SSE direction of the Bayan Har, southwestern Yunnan, and rhombic blocks were enhanced, and the dextral and horizontal compressive speeds and annual accumulative compressive stress of the Longmenshan fault zone increased markedly by factors of 4.5, 2.1, and 2.5, respectively. The southern Xianshuihe, Anninghe, Zemuhe, Daliangshan, and Lijiang-Xiaojinhe fault zones accumulated compressive stress rapidly, forming enhanced compressive stress zones along a NE strike crossing the central part of the Sichuan-Yunnan region. The tensional movement of the Xianshuihe fault zone was enhanced and the slip movement in the central part of the zone was reversed in a short time. The changes are tightly related to the medium-intensity earthquakes that occurred during the same period in this region, revealing that the spatial migration of seismic activity is related to changes of movement of the blocks.     

Study on Postseismic Impact of Wenchuan Earthquake on the Sichuan-Yunnan Region Based on Three-Dimensional Viscoelastic Finite Element Method

Based on the lateral segmentation and vertical stratification characteristics of the crustal medium in Sichuan-Yunnan region,and the asymmetry of the static dislocations on the coseismic fault plane of the Wenchuan M_S8. 0 earthquake,we built a three-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model of the crust in the Sichuan-Yunnan region. The postseismic impact of the Wenchuan M_S8. 0 earthquake on the Sichuan-Yunnan region was studied.The results show that:① The far-field horizontal deformation caused by the viscoelastic relaxation of the medium in the 10 years after the earthquake is about 0-20 mm within the Sichuan-Yunnan diamond-shaped block,which has a greater influence on north side and smaller on south side.② In the 10 years after the earthquake,the far-field vertical deformation caused by the viscoelastic relaxation effect of the medium is small,and it shows an increase of about 0-4 mm in most areas of the Sichuan-Yunnan diamond-shaped block.③ The Xianshuihe fault and the eastern segment of the East Kunlun fault,which are close to the seismogenic fault,show a high gradient on deformation fields after the earthquake.④ In order to compare with the strong earthquake activity in the SichuanYunnan region after the Wenchuan earthquake, the horizontal stress state and the Coulomb failure stress change of the active block boundary are also calculated. From the spatial distribution of the coseismic and postseismic displacement field,the fault activity characteristics reflected by the stress state and the stress loading of the fault layer reflected by the Coulomb failure stress change,there is a certain correlation with the spatial distribution of strong earthquake activity in this region.     

Coupling characteristics of stress and strain at different layers of different sub-regions in Yunnan and its adjacent areas

In this paper,we collect 6 361 waveform data to calculate the shear wave splitting parameters from a regionalseismic network of 22 digital stations in Yunnan and its adjacent area from July 1999 to June 2005.By using thecross-correlation method,64 splitting events of 16 stations are processed.We also collect the splitting results ofeight earthquake sequences to present the characteristics of shear wave splitting in Yunnan and its adjacent areas.The orientations of maximum principal compressive stress of three sub-regions in this area are derived from theCMT focal mechanism solutions of 43 moderate-strong earthquakes provided by Harvard University by the P axisazimuth-averaging method.The principal strain rate at each observatory is deduced from the observations ofCrustal Movement Observation Network of China during the period from 1999 to 2004.In addition,the data of Pnaniso-tropy and SKS splitting of Yunnan and its adjacent areas are also collected.We have discovered from thisstudy that the continental lithosphere,as a main seismogenic environment for strong earthquake,can be dividedinto blocks laterally;the mechanical behavior of lithosphere varies with depth and can be divided into differentlayers in the vertical orientation;the information of crustal deformation obtained from GPS might be affected bythe type of blocks,since there are different types of active blocks in Yunnan and its adjacent areas;the shear wavesplitting in this region might be affected mainly by the upper crust or even the surface tectonics.     

A Monte Carlo study of rainfall forecasting with a stochastic model

A procedure for short-term rainfall forecasting in real-time is developed and a study of the role of sampling on forecast ability is conducted. Ground level rainfall fields are forecasted using a stochastic space-time rainfall model in state-space form. Updating of the rainfall field in real-time is accomplished using a distributed parameter Kalman filter to optimally combine measurement information and forecast model estimates. The influence of sampling density on forecast accuracy is evaluated using a series of a simulated rainfall events generated with the same stochastic rainfall model. Sampling was conducted at five different network spatial densities. The results quantify the influence of sampling network density on real-time rainfall field forecasting. Statistical analyses of the rainfall field residuals illustrate improvement in one hour lead time forecasts at higher measurement densities.     

Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration Aims And Scope

正This journal is established by the Institute of Engineering Mechanics(IEM),China Earthquake Administration,to promote scientific exchange between Chinese and foreign scientists and engineers so as to improve the theory and practice of earthquake hazards mitigation,preparedness,and recovery.To accomplish this purpose,the journal aims to attract a balanced number of papers between Chinese and     

Foreword

Destructive earthquakes have caused great damage in China and the United States and collapsing buildings havecaused many deaths and injuries. The field of earthquake engineering studies earthquake hazards, the occurrence ofearthquakes of various magnitudes, the nature of the ground shaking during an earthquake, the vibration of structuresduring earthquakes, the strengthening of existing structures and the design of new structures to be earthquake resistant,and finally, how to cope with earthquake damage and restore a city to normal functioning. Such efforts are in progressin both countries, but unfortunately, the language barrier interferes with the free flow of information between China andthe Untied States. It would be mutually beneficial if some means could be developed to promote the exchangeof information across the Pacific Ocean. This new journal has been established for this purpose and its success willbe an important step in promoting earthquake engineering in China and the United States.     

WORLD ASSOCIATION FOR SEDIMENTATION AND EROSION RESEARCH(WASER)

正President:Giampaolo Di Silvio,Italy Vice Presidents:Ulrich C.E.Zanke,Germany Zhao-yin Wang,China The World Association for Sedimentation and Erosion Research(WASER),inaugurated on Oct.19,2004,is an independent non-governmental,non-profit organization.The mission of WASER is to promote international co-operation on the study     

Enhancing remote sensing research on global change to improve our understanding on Earth system processes

正Global Change includes climate change and other environmental changes caused by the joint interaction among various layers of Earth. From the positive side, global change provides new opportunities to human and other living forms on Earth. In the meantime, it creates tremendous challenges and negative impact. At present, the negative impacts have reached all primary processes of the global ecosystem and every aspect of human society, especially causing degradation of the ecosystem. For instance, intensive deforestation causes decline of biodiversity; global warming causes sea level rise and increases     

Solute concentrations in the lower niger river and the source rock contribution

Water quality analyses for the Niger River for the 1980/81 hydrological year are presented. The samples were collected from the main river at Lokoja, and from two main tributaries, the Kaduna and the Benue Rivers. Different water types were distinguished by the concentrations of major ions. The type Ca > Na > Mg > K - HCO₃ > SO₄ > Cl was represented at all stations during at least part of the year. Chloride was found to dominate the sulphate ion in the Kaduna and Niger, while the Benue maintained a higher concentration of sulphate relative to chloride all year round. Distinct patterns of seasonal variation in the ion concentrations were observed, particularly for the samples collected at Lokoja. Low ion concentrations were prominent during periods of high discharge, while low flow periods coincided with high dissolved ion concentrations. The contribution of rainwater to the total dissolved solids in the river waters was assessed indirectly using rainwater chemistry data from the Gulf of Guinea. The estimated rainwater contribution to the Lower Niger amounts to 5.15 mg 1^?1. Geochemical weathering calculations involving reactions of the four major minerals of granitic rocks - anorthite, biotite, albite, and K-feldspar - with carbon dioxide and water, can account for the average water composition of the Lower Niger. The proportion of the ionic components was also related to the occurrence of the respective element in the minerals.