A negative search for an ultra-slow component to the source of the Yunnan earthquakes of May 29, 1976

Following Nagamune's suggestion of a giant, but very slow, component to the source of the Yunnan earthquakes of May 29, 1976, a systematic study of the ultra-low frequency content of a number of tiltmeter, strainmeter, and IDA records of the events is conducted. First, Nagamune's hypothesis is quantified, and it is found that it would require a moment in the range 10²⁹–10³⁰ dyn-cm. Such a large moment would have important consequences for our understanding of stress release in the plates, but is incompatible with the extent of the aftershock zone, and with observations on other instruments: specifically, only one IDA record shows a time-domain oscillation which may be related to the proposed source. In the Fourier domain, however, a spectral analysis fails to identify any of the Earth's modes in any of the available records, including the one originally used by Nagamune. It must therefore be concluded that the apparent signal present in a few records is due to noise—probably of instrumental origin—rather than to an ultra-low-frequency component of the seismic source.