TWO DIMENSIONAL MODEL ON RELATION BETWEEN THERMAL ANOMALY BEFORE WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE AND TECTONIC STRESS |
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| Authors: | ZHU Chuan-hua SHAN Xin-jian ZHANG Guo-hong JIAO Zhong-hu ZHANG Ying-feng LI Yan-chuan QIAO Xin |
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| Affiliation: | State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China |
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| Abstract: | It has been reported that there is thermal anomaly within a certain time and space preceding an earthquake, and previous research has indicated potential associations between the thermal anomaly and earthquake faults, but it is still controversial whether physical processes associated with seismic faults can produce observable heat.Based on rock experiments, some scholars believe that the convective and stress-induced heat associated with fault stress changes may be the cause of those anomalies. Then, did the thermal anomaly before the Wenchuan earthquake induced by the fault stress change?It remains to be tested by numerical simulations on the distribution and intensity of thermal anomalies. For example, is the area of thermal anomaly caused by the fault stress changes before the earthquake the same as the observation?Is the intensity the same?To clarify the above questions, a two-dimensional thermo-hydro-mechanical(THM)finite element model was conducted in this study to simulate the spatial and temporal variations of thermal anomalies caused by the underground fluid convection and rock stress change due to the tectonic stress release on fault before earthquake. Results showed that the simulated thermal anomalies could be consistent with the observed in magnitude and spatio-temporal distribution. Before the Wenchuan earthquake, deformation-related thermal anomalies occurred mainly in the fault zone and its adjacent hanging wall, which are usually abnormal temperature rise, and occasionally abnormal cooling, occurring in the fault zone after the peak temperature rise. In the fault zone, the thermal anomaly is usually greater than the order of 1K of the equivalent air temperature and is controlled by the combined effect of fluid convection and stress change. The temperature increases first and then decreases before the earthquake. In the hanging wall, it's weaker than that of the fault zone, mainly depending on the convection of the fluid. The temperature gradually increases before the earthquake and is dramatically affected by the permeability. Usually, only when the permeability is larger than 10-13m2, can the air temperature rise higher than 1K occur. The results of this study support the view that fluid convection and stress change caused by fault slip before the earthquake can produce observable air temperature anomalies. |
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| Keywords: | pre-earthquake Wenchuan earthquake poroelastic model stress induced warming |
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