THE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH OF RECENT GRAVITY AND CRUSTAL DEFORMATION IN NORTHEASTERN EDGE OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU |
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| Authors: | ZHU Yi-qing LIANG Wei-feng HAO Ming ZHAO Ling-qiang HAO Qing-hua ZHANG Guo-qing LIU Lian |
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| Affiliation: | Second Crust Monitoring and Application Center, China Earthquake Administration, Xi'an 710054, China |
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| Abstract: | In this study, we systematically analyzed the relationship between regional gravity changes, 3D crustal deformation, regional tectonic environment and strong earthquakes based on the relative gravity measurements(2011-2014), GPS data and the background vertical deformation from the leveling measurements conducted from 1970 to 2011. Subsequently, we further characterized the temporal-spatial patterns and discussed the mechanism of regional gravity changes and the crustal deformation. The results can be summarized as follows:1)The regional gravity changes, the GPS-derived horizontal deformation and the vertical deformational obtained from leveling data showed a close spatial relationship:The gravity increased along with the direction of horizontal movement, and the gravity decreased with the crustal uplift and vice versa, which reflects the inherited characteristics of neotectonic activities. 2)The crustal deformation was closely related to the active faults. The contour lines of gravity changes and vertical deformation were generally along with the Qilian-Haiyuan Fault(the strike is NWW), and the crustal horizontal deformation showed left-lateral strike slip motion near the Qilian-Haiyuan Fault. 3)The strong earthquakes usually occur in the active faults where intensive gravity change and vertical and/or horizontal deformation occurred. The extrusion deformation, surface compression rate and gravity changes were obvious near the epicenter of 2016 Menyuan earthquake. The 2013 Minxian-Zhangxian MS6.6 earthquake occurred in the direction-turning area of intense gravity gradient zone and the transitional area of surface compression and vertical deformation. The first author of this paper has made a medium-term forecast before the Minxian and Menyuan earthquakes, especially the location of the earthquake. Based on the above understandings, we emphasized that:there are still possibilities of strong or huge earthquakes within medium-long term in the areas of crustal deformation anomalies in the study region. |
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| Keywords: | northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau gravity change GPS leveling measurement tectonic activity |
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