The Characteristics of Seismic Activity Before the Devastating Earthquake with M_W9.0 Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra

INTRODUCTIONMeasured bythe China Earthquake Networks Center ,a great earthquake withMS8·7 occurred offthe west coast of Northern Sumatra at Beijing Time 08 :58 :55·2 on December 26 , 2004·Themagnitude of the earthquake determined by the National Earthquake Information Center of USA(NEIC) wasMW9·0 .The earthquakeisthe biggestinthe world afterthe 1964 Prince WilliamSound,Alaska earthquake .The tsunami triggered bythe Sumatra earthquake brought about severe devastationfor ten …     

川西地震强化监视区的基本情况与工作设想

川西地震强化监视区属于计划建立的中国内地首批5个地震强化监视区之一。在初步方案中，该区沿川滇活动地块的东北—东部边界的—部分展布，区内有鲜水河断裂中一南段，安宁河、则木河以及大凉山等活动断裂，总面积约为6万平方千米。本文着重介绍了川西地震强化监视区的基本情况、历史与现今强震活动背景、中长期地震潜势、现有的工作基础和监测能力。最后，作者提出在该区开展强化监测工作的建议，以及与该区中期一短期震情跟踪和预报实践紧密相关的研究课题。     

The Characteristics of Seismic Activity Before the Devastating Earthquake with M wg. 0 Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra

The characteristics of seismic activity in different time-spatial domain before the Mw9.0 earthquake were studied. The results are as follows ： ① The activity of the deep earthquakes in the north boundary zone of the Australian plate had been evidently strengthened since 1994, showing an increased frequency, magnitude and depth, especially in regards to the heterogeneous distribution of the earthquake depth （namely between 500km and 689km）. Meanwhile the shallow earthquakes of M ≥ 7.0 in the Sumatra island and its vicinity had been obviously strengthened too, and formed a strengthening area with a length of about 1000 km and width 300 km. ②The time distribution of global strong earthquakes with M≥ 7.0 shows that the character of anomalous seismic quiescence-activity one year before the Mw9.0 earthquake and during its active period, the strong earthquakes formed a seismic belt striking in NWW direction. At the same time, there is a seismic gap formed by earthquakes of M ≥ 5.0 in the epicenter and its neighboring region. ③ Two deep earthquakes of M ≥ 7.0 occurred in the west and in the east of the north boundary zone of the Australian plate half year ago. It is notable that one of them occurred in the Sumatra island where no deep earthquake with M ③ 6.0 has occurred in the past thirty years. ④The space distribution of moderate shocks occurring three days ago exhibited a NWW-strike seismic belt along the north boundary zone of the Australian plate. ⑤The activity of volcanoes distributed in the north boundary zone of the Australian plate had been strengthened in the past 4 years, especially several months before the occurrence of the Mw9.0 earthquake.