Evidence for Anthropogenic Surface Loading as Trigger Mechanism of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

Physics – Geophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

22 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

Scientific paper

10.1007/s12665-011-1355-7

Two and a half years prior to China's M7.9 Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008, at least 300 million metric tons of water accumulated with additional seasonal water level changes in the Minjiang River Valley at the eastern margin of the Longmen Shan. This article shows that static surface loading in the Zipingpu water reservoir induced Coulomb failure stresses on the nearby Beichuan thrust fault system at <17km depth. Triggering stresses exceeded levels of daily lunar and solar tides and perturbed a fault area measuring 416+/-96km^2. These stress perturbations, in turn, likely advanced the clock of the mainshock and directed the initial rupture propagation upward towards the reservoir on the "Coulomb-like" Beichuan fault with rate-and-state dependent frictional behavior. Static triggering perturbations produced up to 60 years (0.6%) of equivalent tectonic loading, and show strong correlations to the coseismic slip. Moreover, correlations between clock advancement and coseismic slip, observed during the mainshock beneath the reservoir, are strongest for a longer seismic cycle (10kyr) of M>7 earthquakes. Finally, the daily event rate of the micro-seismicity (M>0.5) correlates well with the static stress perturbations, indicating destabilization.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Evidence for Anthropogenic Surface Loading as Trigger Mechanism of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Evidence for Anthropogenic Surface Loading as Trigger Mechanism of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Evidence for Anthropogenic Surface Loading as Trigger Mechanism of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-351274

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.