Imaging the ramp–décollement geometry of the Chelungpu fault using coseismic GPS displacements from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake

We use coseismic GPS data from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake to estimate the subsurface shape of the Chelungpu fault that ruptured during the earthquake. Studies prior to the earthquake suggest a ramp–décollement geometry for the Chelungpu fault, yet many finite source inversions using GPS and seismic data assume slip occurred on the down-dip extension of the Chelungpu ramp, rather than on a sub-horizontal décollement. We test whether slip occurred on the décollement or the down-dip extension of the ramp using well-established methods of inverting GPS data for geometry and slip on faults represented as elastic dislocations. We find that a significant portion of the coseismic slip did indeed occur on a sub-horizontal décollement located at 8 km depth. The slip on the décollement contributes 21% of the total modeled moment release. We estimate the fault geometry assuming several different models for the distribution of elastic properties in the earth: homogeneous, layered, and layered with lateral material contrast across the fault. It is shown, however, that heterogeneity has little influence on our estimated fault geometry. We also investigate several competing interpretations of deformation within the E/W trending rupture zone at the northern end of the 1999 ground ruptures. We demonstrate that the GPS data require a 22- to 35-km-long lateral ramp at the northern end, contradicting other investigations that propose deformation is concentrated within 10 km of the Chelungpu fault. Lastly, we propose a simple tectonic model for the development of the lateral ramp.     

Neotectonic deformation in the transition zone between the Dead Sea Transform and the East Anatolian Fault Zone, Southern Turkey: a palaeomagnetic study of the Karasu Rift Volcanism

In southern Turkey ongoing differential impingement of Arabia into the weak Anatolian collisional collage resulting from subduction of the Neotethyan Ocean has produced one of the most complex crustal interactions along the Alpine–Himalayan Orogen. Several major transforms with disputed motions, including the northward extension of the Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ), meet in this region. To evaluate neotectonic motion on the Amanos and East Hatay fault zones considered to be northward extensions of the DSFZ, the palaeomagnetism of volcanic fields in the Karasu Rift between these faults has been studied. Remanence carriers are low-Ti magnetites and all except 5 of 51 basalt lavas have normal polarity. Morphological, polarity and K–Ar evidence show that rift formation occurred largely during the Brunhes chron with volcanism concentrated at 0.66–0.35 Ma and a subsidiary episode at 0.25–0.05. Forty-four units of normal polarity yield a mean of D/I=8.8°/54.7° with inclination identical to the present-day field and declination rotated clockwise by 8.8±4.0°. Within the 15-km-wide Hassa sector of the Karasu Rift, the volcanic activity is concentrated between the Amanos and East Hatay faults, both with left lateral motions, which have rotated blocks bounded by NW–SE cross faults in a clockwise sense as the Arabian Block has moved northwestwards. An average lava age of 0.5 Ma yields a minimum cumulative slip rate on the system bounding faults of 0.46 cm/year according with the rate deduced from the Africa–Arabia Euler vector and reduced rates of slip on the southern extension of the DSFZ during Plio-Quaternary times. Estimates deduced from offsets of dated lavas flows and morphological features on the Amanos Fault Zone [Tectonophysics 344 (2002) 207] are lower (0.09–0.18 cm/year) probably because they are limited to surface fault breaks and do not embrace the seismogenic crust.Results of this study suggest that most strike slip on the DSFZ is taken up by the Amanos–East Hatay–Afrin fault array in southern Turkey. Comparable estimates of Quaternary slip rate are identified on other faults meeting at an unstable FFF junction (DSFZ, East Anatolian Fault Zone, Karatas Fault Zone). A deceleration in slip rate across the DSFZ and its northward continuation during Plio-Quaternary times correlates with reorganization of the tectonic regime during the last 1–3 Ma including tectonic escape within Anatolia, establishment of the North and East Anatolian Fault Zones bounding the Anatolian collage in mid–late Pliocene times, a contemporaneous transition from transpression to transtension and concentration of all basaltic magmatism in this region within the last 1 Ma.     

Paleo-earthquake studies on the eastern section of the Kunlun fault

Introduction East Kunlun active fault is one of the largest sinistral slip fault zones in northern Tibetan Pla-teau. The fault tails primarily after the ancient eastern Kunlun suture zone, which was reactivatedby the northward subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Eurasian plate. The western end of thefault starts near the western flank of the Buxedaban peak in Qinghai Province. The fault then ex-tends eastwards through the Kusai Lake, Xidatan, Dongdatan, Alag Lake, Tuosuo Lak…     

Penny-shaped fractures revisited

All methods of seismic characterization of fractured reservoirs are based on effective media theories that relate geometrical and material properties of fractures and surrounding rock to the effective stiffnesses. In exploration seismology, the first-order theory of Hudson is the most popular. It describes the effective model caused by the presence of a single set of thin, aligned vertical fractures in otherwise isotropic rock. This model is known to be transversely isotropic with a horizontal symmetry axis (HTI). Following the theory, one can invert the effective anisotropy for the crack density and type of fluid infill of fractures, the quantities of great importance for reservoir appraisal and management.Here I compute effective media numerically using the finite element method. I deliberately construct models that contain a single set of vertical, ellipsoidal, non-intersecting and non-interconnected fractures to check validity of the first-order Hudson’s theory and establish the limits of its applicability. Contrary to conventional wisdom that Hudson’s results are accurate up to crack density e ≈ 0.1, I show that they consistently overestimate the magnitudes of all effective anisotropic coefficients ε^(V), δ^(V), and γ^(V). Accuracy of theoretically derived anisotropy depends on the type of fluid infill and typically deteriorates as e grows. While the theory gives | ε^(V)|, |δ^(V)|, |γ^(V)| and close to the upper bound of the corresponding numerically obtained values for randomly distributed liquid-filled fractures, theoretical predictions of ε^(V), δ^(V) are not supported by numerical computations when the cracks are dry. This happens primarily because the first-order Hudson’s theory makes no attempt to account for fracture interaction which contributes to the final result much stronger for gas- than for liquid-filled cracks. I find that Mori-Tanaka’s theory is superior to Hudson’s for all examined crack densities and both types of fluid infill.The paper was presented at the 11th International Workshop on Seismic Anisotropy (11IWSA) held in St. John’s, Canada in 2004.     

GIS中矢量与栅格数据模型比较

由于GIS软件的多样性，每种软件都有自己特定的数据模型，从数据结构上来说，矢量和栅格是地理信息系统中两种主要的空间数据结构。本文通过对栅格数据与矢量数据模型的应用比较．对于空间数据从需求分析，以满足对数据信息进行更改、更新、增加或者为了某种特定的需要。