Triggered earthquake study in Tranh River No. 2 (Vietnam) Hydropower Reservoir

This article presents the results of investigating triggered earthquakes in the vicinity of Tranh River No.2 Hydropower Reservoir in recent years. It is found that earthquakes occurred in the vicinity of Tranh River Hydropower Reservoir, probably associated with the Trà My — Trà BÓng fault zone. It is estimated that this fault is capable of hosting an earthquake of M~6.1. The ‘b’ value for this earthquake sequence is 0.83, which is higher than the regional ‘b’ value of 0.60. We estimate that the return period of earthquakes of M=4.5, 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 is 11, 29, 76 and 198 months respectively. On October 22, 2012 an earthquake M_S=4.6, I₀=6.0 (MSK-64) occurred at 13:41:28 hrs GMT. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at a distance of 5.5 km away from the center of the dam towards the west. The focal depth is about 4.5 km, and the rupture length is about 1.8 km.