Downward migration of seismic activity prior to some great shallow earthquakes in Japanese subduction zones—a possible intermediateterm precursor

Before the 1944 Tonankai earthquake along the Nankai Trough, seismic activity increased in the shallow depths, and then the activity gradually migrated downwards. When it reached its limit (a depth of approximatelty 70 km), the main shock occurred. Several deep earthquakes, including one ofM5.3, occurred several months prior to the Tonankai earthquake. A similar downward migration pattern also can be recognized regarding the 1952 Tokachi-oki earthquake. In this case the deepest earthquakes reached about 400 km. This may be one of the intermediate-term precursory phenomena of great thrusttype earthquakes in subduction zones. Recent observations in the Tokai district along the Suruga Trough, where a large earthquake is expected to occur in the future, suggest a similar downward migration pattern in the land area.     

Mechanisms of seismic quiescences

In the past decade there have been major advances in understanding the seismic cycle in terms of the recognition of characteristic patterns of seismicity over the entire tectonic loading cycle. The most distinctive types of patterns are seismic quiescences, of which three types can be recognized:post-seismic quiescence, which occurs in the region of the rupture zone of an earthquake and persists for a substantial fraction of the recurrence time following the earthquake,intermediate-term quiescences, which appear over a similar region and persist for several years prior to large plate-rupturing earthquakes, andshort-term quiescences, which are pronounced lulls in premonitory swarms that occur in the hypocentral region hours or days before an earthquake. Although the frequency with which intermediate-term and short-term quiescences precede earthquakes is not known, and the statistical significance of some of the former has been challenged, there is a need, if this phenomena is to be considered a possibly real precursor, to consider physical mechanisms that may be responsible for them.The characteristic features of these quiescences are reviewed, and possible mechanisms for their cause are discussed. Post-seismic quiescence can be readily explained by any simple model of the tectonic loading cycle as due to the regional effect of the stress-drop of the previous principal earthquake. The other types of quiescence require significant modification to any such simple model. Of the possibilities considered, only two seem viable in predicting the observed phenomena, dilatancy hardening and slip weakening. Intermediate-term quiescences typically occur over a region equal to or several times the size of the rupture zone of the later earthquake and exhibit a relationship between the quiescence duration and size of the earthquake: they thus involve regional hardening or stress relaxation and agree with the predictions of the dilatancy-diffusion theory. Short-term quiescences, on the other hand, are more likely explained by fault zone dilatancy hardening and/or slip weakening within a small nucleation zone. Because seismicity is a locally relaxing process, seismicity should follow a behaviour known in rock mechanics as the Kaiser effect, in which only a very slight increase in strength, due to dilatancy hardening or decrease in stress due to slip weakening, is required to cause quiescence. This is in contrast to other precursory phenomena predicted by dilatancy, which require large dilatant strains and complete dilatancy hardening.Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory     

A four-parameter,two degree-of-freedom block-spring model: Effect of the driver velocity

We analyze the effect of tectonic plate velocities in the earthquake pattern using a simple mass-spring model of the Burridge and Knopoff type with two blocks and a velocity-weakening friction law. Previous versions of the two-block model assume a steady driver during slip events (limit of zero driver velocity), which, in some cases makes necessary the introduction of artificial parameters to start the numerical integration of the equations of motion at impending slip of any block. Still maintaining the condition of zero driver velocity during slip, we shall introduce a procedure to start the numerical integration without introducing artificial parameters and this will be done by using a linearized version of the equations of motion valid for small velocities and considering nonzero driver velocity. We also introduce a four parameter model in which the driver velocity enters the equations during the whole simulation, and analyze the effect of the new parameter, the driver velocity, in the displacement and time patterns of blocks motion, directly related to earthquake statistics such as coseismic slips and average repeat times.     

Relocation of Hypocenters in the Bohai Sea and Adjacent Areas

In this paper a method of relocating hypocenter in inhomogeneous medium is introduced.Based on the velocity from the latest results on the crust and mantle structure of the Bohai Sea and its adjacent areas,by using the data recorded in Shandong,Hebei,Beijing,and Liaoning networks around the Bohai Sea we apply the method to relocate hypocenter parameters of 598 events occurring in the Bohai Sea and its adjacent areas.The accuracy of hypocenter relocation is discussed.We present the results of events ML≥4.0 in the Bohai Sea in recent years and discussed the distribution of focal depths.     

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility parameters: Guidelines for their rational selection

Twenty-eight parameters used to characterize measurements of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility are compared theoretically in this work by introducing the concept of the field of susceptibility tensors, which allows the representation of parameters as families of lines in a plane. It is demonstrated that the foliation and lineation parameters are but a special case of the shape parameters, implying that the resolution of these two rock fabric elements using AMS measurements alone is more an artifact of the numerical range of definition of some parameters than a quantification of two physically independent features. Also, it is shown that parameters presumably of the same type do not necessarily yield equivalent interpretation of results in a qualitative sense, and therefore, caution should be strongly exercised when parameters are to be selected. Paramters quantifying the degree of anisotropy are, in general, equivalent to each other because of the very small departure observed in natural rocks from the isotropic case. However, a final consideration of the possible ability to differentiate rock types and a convenient range of values allowing expression of the degree of anisotropy in a well-defined percentage are pointed out as the main factors to be considered before selecting one parameter within this class.     

三分量地震资料中各向异性检测

各向异性研究是当令地震学研究领域中重要课题之一；三分量地震资料中各向异性的检测是各向异性理论研究成果解决地球科学实际问题的重要桥梁。本文简要描述了各向异性介质中横波分裂现象，分别介绍了现有的四种主要检测技术，即偏振图法、协方差拒阵法、质，点振动分辨率法及传输矩阵法，并对这四种技术作了一定的评述。     

若干特殊地表风蚀的风洞实验研究

经风洞模拟实验,本文对四种特殊地表在净风和挟沙风情况下的风蚀特性,进行了定量的研究。揭示了原始地表结构受人为破坏后,其抗风蚀能力急剧降低的特点。探讨了风成沙粒配、戈壁风蚀平衡与风蚀有关的几个问题。