Correlations between soil gas and seismic activity in the Generalized Haiyuan Fault Zone,north-central China

Radon and mercury concentrations were measured in 10 fault gas profiles in Generalized Haiyuan Fault. This paper aims to predetermine the potential seismic risk in different segments of the fault zone from the perspective of geochemistry. The background value and anomaly threshold were adopted and synthesized using the maximum value method and average method to calculate concentration intensity values of radon and mercury. Fault soil gas mercury and radon concentrations show a decreasing gradient from NW to SE indicating evident segmentation. Higher values are mostly distributed in the Maomao Mountain–Tiger Mountain fault and Jingtai area. Combined with the seismotectonic background of historical and recent earthquakes and the spatial distribution characteristics of b-values, the fault soil gas concentration intensity shows a close correlation with earthquake activity within the fault zone. Concentrations of fault gas are higher and the b-value lower in areas of strong seismic activity, and regions with weak seismic activity correspond to lower fault gas concentrations and higher b-values. It is thus considered that the Jingtai area may be more dangerous than the other areas. This paper could provide vital background information for earthquake prediction in the Generalized Haiyuan Fault Zone.