Typical basin-fill sequences and basin migration in Yanshan, North China--Response to Mesozoic tectonic transition

Basin-fill sequences of Mesozoic typical basins in the Yanshan area, North China may be divided into four phases, reflecting lithosphere tectonic evolution from flexure (T3), flexure with weak rifting (J1+2), tectonic transition (J3), and rifting (K). Except the first phase, the other three phases all start with lava and volcaniclastic rocks, and end with thick coarse clastic rocks and/or conglomerates, showing cyclic basin development rather than simple cyclic rift mechanism and disciplinary basin-stress change from extension to compression in each phase. Prototype basin analysis, based on basin-fill sequences, paleocurrent distribution and depositional systems, shows that single basin-strike and structural-line direction controlling basin development had evidently changed from east-west to northeast in Late Jurassic in the Yanshan area, although basin group still occurred in east-west zonal distribution. Till Early Cretaceous, main structural-line strike controlling basins just turned to northeast by north in the studied area.     

Mesozoic basin evolution and tectonic mechanism in Yanshan, China

The Mesozoic basins in Yanshan, China underwent several important tectonic transformations, including changes from a pre-Late Triassic marginal cratonic basin to a Late Triassic-Late Jurassic flexural basin and then to a late Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rift basin. In response to two violent intraplate deformation at Late Triassic and Late Jurassic, coarse fluvial depositional systems in Xingshikou and Tuchengzi Formations were deposited in front of thrust belts. Controlled by transform and extension faulting, fan deltas and lacustrine systems were deposited in Early Cretaceous basins. The composition of clastic debris in Late Triassic and Late Jurassic flexural basins respectively represents unroofing processes from Proterozoic to Archean and from early deposited, overlying pyroclastic rocks to basement rocks in provenance areas. Restored protobasins were gradually migrated toward nearly NEE to EW-trending from Early Jurassic to early Late Jurassic. The Early Cretaceous basins with a NNE-trending crossed over early-formed basins. The Early-Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous basins were respectively controlled by different tectonic mechanisms.     

Similarities between strike-slip faults at different scales and a simple age determining method for active faults

Abstract Several differently scaled strike‐slip faults were examined. The faults shared many geometric features, such as secondary fractures and linkage structures (damage zones). Differences in fault style were not related to specific scale ranges. However, it was recognized that differences in style may occur in different tectonic settings (e.g. dilational/contractional relays or wall/linkage/tip zones), different locations along the master fault or different fault evolution stages. Fractal dimensions were compared for two faults (Gozo and San Andreas), which supports the idea of self‐similarity. Fractal dimensions for traces of faults and fractures of damage zones were higher (D ～1.35) than for the main fault traces (D ～1.005) because of increased complexity due to secondary faults and fractures. Based on the statistical analysis of another fault evolution study, single event movements in earthquake faults typically have a maximum earthquake slip : rupture length ratio of approximately 10^?4, although this has only been established for large earthquake faults because of limited data. Most geological faults have a much higher maximum cumulative displacement : fault length ratio; that is, approximately 10^?2 to 10^?1 (e.g. Gozo, ～10^?2; San Andreas, ～10^?1). The final cumulative displacement on a fault is produced by accumulation of slip along ruptures. Hence, using the available information from earthquake faults, such as earthquake slip, recurrence interval, maximum cumulative displacement and fault length, the approximate age of active faults can be estimated. The lower limit of estimated active fault age is expressed with maximum cumulative displacement, earthquake slip and recurrence interval as T ? (d_max /u) · I(M).     

Change of crustal gravitational potential energy in the Taiwan orogen by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence

The active convergence between the northwest corner of the Philippine Sea Plate and the southeast margin of the Eurasian Plate has given rise to the Taiwan mountain-building and produced numerous earthquakes. Among the earthquakes, the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake is the largest one recorded in the century. In this study, we examine the crustal gravitational potential energy (GPE) change in the Taiwan orogen caused by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence, which was catalogued by the regional broadband seismometer array for a whole year. As a result, we find that the crust was going up and down randomly during the earthquake sequence, but an overall cumulative gain of the crustal GPE, +1.82×10¹⁶ J, was rapidly achieved in 1 month after the main shock. The crustal GPE was nearly still afterwards and reached +1.90×10¹⁶ J in 1 year. Spatially, although the main surface faulting has occurred in western Taiwan, the crustal GPE gain is mainly distributed in central Taiwan at the area where the existing crustal GPE is high and the existing lithospheric GPE is relatively low. The crustal GPE loss by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence can also be observed and is generally distributed at both sides of the crustal GPE gain area. The crustal GPE gain mainly found in central Taiwan corroborates that the uplift of the Taiwan orogen is principally taking place in central Taiwan, rather than in the more hazardous western Taiwan.     

Earthquake‐related geomorphic environment and pond sediment information

Shaking during the 1995 Kobe earthquake caused surface material to be more mobile in catchment areas in the Rokko Mountains, Kobe, where there are some active fault lines. As a result, there were many landslides associated with the earthquake. The sedimentation rate in a pond in the mountains increased several fold, then exponentially decreased with seasonality over several years. Six years after the earthquake there were no marked surface movements related to the earthquake, even though the sedimentation rates had increased slightly. A new steady state for the structure of the earthquake‐modi?ed surface had evidently been reached. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Earthquake relocation and 3-dimensional crustal structure of P-wave velocity in cen-tral-western China

IntroductionUnderstandingthemechanismofcontinentalearthquakesisveryimportantforseismichaz-ardpreventionandearthquakeprediction.Themodernseismotectonictheoryandtheideaofearthquakepredictionaredevelopedmainlyfromthestudiesoninterplateearthquakes,whicharedifficulttoexplainthephenomenaofintraplateearthquakes,suchasthecontinentalearthquakesoccurredinChinesemainland.Whiletheinterplateearthquakesoccurredalongtheplatebounda-ries,theintraplateearthquakesdistributediffuselyintheinterioroftheplates.Thus…     

Large aftershocks triggering by Coulomb failure stress following the 2001 M_S=8.1 great Kunlun earthquake

IntroductionItisshowedbyresearchesonearthquakestresstriggeringrecentlythatsmall'static'stresschangesduetopermanentfaultdisplacementcanalterthelikelihoodof,ortrigger,earthquakesonnearbyfaults(Harris,1998).Manystudiesoftriggeringinthenear-field,particularlyofaftershocks,showthesestaticchangesaretriggeringagent(Kilb,etal,2000).ReasenbergandSimpson(1992)studiedthere-sponseofregionalseismicitytothestaticstresschangeproducedbyLomaPrietaearthquake,andtheresultsshowedthataftershockratesincreasedinre…     

3-D rheologic model of earthquake preparation (II): Strain field and its applications

Introduction Based on the elastic theory of the hard inclusion (Dobrovolskii, 1991), we developed an inclusion theory of rheologic medium, and applied the results of bulk-strain field of a rheologic inclusion model to explain the spatial-temporal evolution process of earthquake precursors (SONG, et al, 2000). In the former paper (SONG, et al, 2003), we derived the viscoelastic displacement field of the rheologic inclusion model on the basis of the analytic expression of displacement field o…     

Investigation of upper crust anisotropy in Ghaen-Birjand region, east-central Iran

IntroductionWhenpropagatingthroughananisotropicmedium,ashearwavesplitsintotwo(quasi)shearwaveswithdifferentpropagationspeedsandpolarizedorthogonally.Owingtotherecentdevel-opmentofseismicobservationsystem,detectionofshearwavessplittingwithverysmalldelaytimesbetweenfasterandslowershearwavesbecameavailableandprovidedpowerfulapproachfordetectionofcrustalanisotropy.Crampin(1978)emphasizedtheroleofalignedmicrocracksasacauseofcrustalanisotropyandpointedoutthatforverticallyalignedmicrocracksthedirecti…     

3-D finite element modeling for evolution of stress field and interaction among strong earthquakes in Sichuan-Yunnan region

Introduction Sichuan-Yunnan region is a major area with frequent strong earthquakes in Chinese mainland, especially the middle-southern segment of South-North Seismic Zone, where many strong earth-quakes occurred in history. In the past 30 years, Sichuan-Yunnan region has two seismically active periods: one is from Tonghai earthquake in 1970 to Longling-Songpan earthquake in 1976, the other is from Lancang earthquake in 1988 to now. During this two periods, the M=7.7 Tonghai, M=7.1 Dagua…