DISCUSSION ON ATTENUATION CHARACTERISTICS,SITE RESPONSE AND MAGNITUDE DETERMINATION IN SICHUAN

The attenuation characteristics and site response are calculated respectively for each individual tectonic unit in Sichuan (Sichuan Basin,west Sichuan plateau and Panzhihua-Xichang area),using digital waveform data recorded by regional seismic networks and relevant seismic phase data collected from China Seismograph Network.The frequency dependent Q(f) is obtained by the iterative grid-search technique described by Atkinson and Mereu based on trilinear geometrical spreading model.The source spectra are determined by the model of Brune and the site responses of seismic stations are derived by Moya's method using genetic algorithms.Comparison to conventional M_L estimates shows that the network local magnitude bias is quite significant at low and intermediate magnitudes.The bias at the j^th station for the i^th event is defined as ΔM_ij=M_ij-M_i, where ΔM_ij is the station magnitude and M_i the network-average value.For comparison,we mapped the spatial distribution of biases by digital seismograms recorded from 10535 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5≤M_L≤4.9 that occurred in Sichuan from January 1,2009 to June 30,2015.Based on the above data,the attenuation characteristics,site response and their effects on magnitude determination in Sichuan are analyzed.Our results demonstrate that the associated model for regional quality factor for frequencies can be expressed as Q₁(f)=450.6f^{0.513 4} for Sichuan Basin,Q₂(f)=136.6f^{0.581 3} for west Sichuan Plateau and Q₃(f)=101.9f^{0.666 3} for Panzhihua-Xichang area.Site response results indicate that different stations show different amplifications.Maps of biases appear to be different,but with similar dominant spatial distribution.For stations in Sichuan Basin,their greater magnitudes are functions of low attenuation in structure and amplification effects of both seismic stations and basin effects.For stations in west Sichuan Plateau,the possible causes of these lower magnitudes are severe dependence upon source region due to extreme lateral variations in either structure or path effect attenuation.For stations in Panzhihua-Xichang area,broken medium caused by strong tectonic activity or large earthquakes and heat flow up-welling along active faults may be the main reasons of low magnitude values when earthquakes occur in western Sichuan and eastern Tibetan region.And the greater magnitudes for earthquakes along the Longmen Mountains appear to be well correlated with edge effect of sedimentary basin on strong ground motion.In our study,stations magnitude biases appear to be extremely correlated with tectonic structures and different regions when seismic rays passing through,magnitudes are affected significantly by lateral variations in attenuation characters rather than site responses.