唐山震区深反射剖面分析

为了进一步研究唐山地区深部地壳构造与唐山大地震孕育及发生的关系,国家地震局地球物理研究所在石油部物探局的协助下,于1985年1月在唐山震区完成了64km长的深反射剖面野外观测,获得了高分辨率的整个地壳结构的详细资料。分析结果表明,唐山震区内深度500m以上的沉积层十分破碎;结晶基底为前震旦纪地层,埋深2-7km不等,覆盖地层倾斜,且断层发育,其中陡河断裂为正断层,延深至6-7km,推断该断层为1976年唐山发震的重要构造之一。测线上大约21km深处普遍存在一反射层;莫霍面深度在31-32km左右,与该地区折射剖面得到的结果相当一致。     

川滇地区小震群活动与中强地震

本文对川滇地区自有地方台,网建立以来的21年间记录到的239次小震群进行了研究,发现Ms≥6.7级的强震绝大多数都发生在小震群年频度增高的背景上。并引用了归一化熵值K作为衡量震群序列中能量分布均匀度的特征量,分析了不同K值的震群与中强震发生的对应关系,发现K≥0.8的震群发生与Ms≥5.5的中强震发生的对应率为59.3%;虚报率为40.7%;漏报率约占14%。K<0.8的震群发生满足无震条件的约占56%。以上结果表明,用归一化熵值K≥0.8来区别前兆震群与一般震群,结果没有华北地区的那样显著。在川滇地区,要将所对应的强震震级提高到6.5级,结果才比较好。     

华北地区强震前后的 h 值及“震情窗口”变化

邢台、渤海、海城以及唐山大地震前1年内,围绕震中甚至距离震中500多公里的地区发生的某些震群,出现衰减系数异常(h≤1)。同时发生在林县、太原、长岛地区的小震群,其月频度几乎同步出现峰值。称林县、太原、长岛地区为“震情窗口”。强震前区域震情h值异常和“震情窗口”变化呼应,对判断未来强震三要素是有益的。     

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.