THE THREE DIMENSIONAL DENSITY STRUCTURE OF CRUST AND UPPER MANTLE IN THE CENTRAL-SOUTHERN PART OF LONGMENSHAN

In recent years, strong earthquakes of M_S8.0 Wenchuan and M_S7.0 Lushan occurred in the central-southern part of Longmenshan fault zone. The distance between the two earthquakes is less than 80 kilometers. So if we can obtain the inner structure of the crust and upper mantle, it will benefit us to understand the mechanism of the two earthquakes. Based on the high resolution dataset of Bouguer gravity anomaly data and the initial model constrained by three-dimensional tomography results of P-wave velocity in Sichuan-Yunnan region, with the help of the preconditioned conjugate gradient(PCG)inversion method, we established the three dimensional density structure model of the crust and upper mantle of the central-southern segment of Longmenshan, the spatial interval of which is 10 kilometers along the horizontal direction and 5 kilometers along the depth which is limited to 0~65km, respectively. This model also provides a new geophysical model for studying the crustal structure of western Sichuan plateau and Sichuan Basin. The results show obvious differences in the crustal density structure on both sides(Songpan-Ganzê block and Sichuan Basin)of Longmenshan fault zone which is a boundary fault and controls the inner crustal structure. In Sichuan Basin, the sedimentary layer is represented as low density structure which is about 10km thick. In contrast, the upper crust of Songpan-Ganzê block shows a thinner sedimentary layer and higher density structure where bedrock is exposed. Furthermore, there is a wide scale low density layer in the middle crust of the Songpan-Ganzê block. Based on this, we inferred that the medium intensity of the Songpan-Ganzê block is significantly lower than that of Sichuan Basin. As a result, the eastward movement of material of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, blocked by the Sichuan Basin, is inevitably impacted, resulting in compressional deformation and uplift, forming the Longmenshan thrust-nappe tectonic belt at the same time. The result also presents that the crustal structure has a distinct segmental feature along the Longmenshan fault zone, which is characterized by obviously discontinuous changes in crustal density. Moreover, a lot of high- and low-density structures appear around the epicenters of Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes. Combining with the projection of the precise locating earthquake results, it is found that Longmenshan fault zone in the upper crust shows obvious segmentation, both Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake occurred in the high density side of the density gradient zone. Wenchuan earthquake and its aftershocks are mainly distributed in the west of central Longmenshan fault zone. In the south of Maoxian-Beichuan, its aftershocks occurred in high density area and the majority of them are thrust earthquake. In the north of Maoxian-Beichuan, its aftershocks occurred in the low density area and the majority of them are strike-slip earthquake. The Lushan earthquake and its aftershocks are concentrated near the gradient zone of crustal density and tend to the side of the high density zone. The aftershocks of Lushan earthquake ended at the edge of low-density zone which is in EW direction in the north Baoxing. The leading edge of Sichuan Basin, which has high density in the lower crust, expands toward the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with the increase of depth, and is close to the west of the Longmenshan fault zone at the top of upper mantle. Our results show that there are a lot of low density bodies in the middle and lower crust of Songpan-Ganzê Block. With the increase of the depth, the low density bodies are moving to the south and its direction changed. This phenomenon shows that the depth and surface structure of Songpan-Ganzê Block are not consistent, suggesting that the crust and upper mantle are decoupled. Although a certain scale of low-density bodies are distributed in the middle and lower crust of Songpan-Ganzê, their connectivity is poor. There are some low-density anomalies in the floor plan. It is hard to give clear evidence to prove whether the lower crust flow exists.