The northern margin of the South China Sea, as a typical extensional continental margin, has relatively strong intraplate seismicity. Compared with the active zones of Nanao Island, Yangjiang, and Heyuan, seismicity in the Pearl River Estuary is relatively low. However, a ML4.0 earthquake in 2006 occurred near Dangan Island(DI) offshore Hong Kong, and this site was adjacent to the source of the historical M5.8 earthquake in 1874. To reveal the seismogenic mechanism of intraplate earthquakes in DI, we systematically analyzed the structural characteristics in the source area of the 2006 DI earthquake using integrated 24-channel seismic profiles, onshore–offshore wide-angle seismic tomography, and natural earthquake parameters. We ascertained the locations of NW-and NE-trending faults in the DI sea and found that the NE-trending DI fault mainly dipped southeast at a high angle and cut through the crust with an obvious low-velocity anomaly. The NW-trending fault dipped southwest with a similar high angle. The 2006 DI earthquake was adjacent to the intersection of the NE-and NW-trending faults, which suggested that the intersection of the two faults with different strikes could provide a favorable condition for the generation and triggering of intraplate earthquakes. Crustal velocity model showed that the high-velocity anomaly was imaged in the west of DI, but a distinct entity with low-velocity anomaly in the upper crust and high-velocity anomaly in the lower crust was found in the south of DI. Both the 1874 and 2006 DI earthquakes occurred along the edge of the distinct entity. Two vertical cross-sections nearly perpendicular to the strikes of the intersecting faults revealed good spatial correlations between the 2006 DI earthquake and the low to high speed transition in the distinct entity. This result indicated that the transitional zone might be a weakly structural body that can store strain energy and release it as a brittle failure, resulting in an earthquake-prone area. 相似文献
The transfer and evolution of stress among rock blocks directly change the void ratios of crushed rock masses and affect the flow of methane in coal mine gobs. In this study, a Lagrange framework and a discrete element method, along with the soft-sphere model and EDEM numerical software, were used. The compaction processes of rock blocks with diameters of 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 m were simulated with the degrees of compression set at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%. This study examines the influence of stress on void ratios of compacted crushed rock masses in coal mine gobs. The results showed that stress was mainly transmitted downward through strong force chains. As the degree of compression increased, the strong force chains extended downward, which resulted in the stress at the upper rock mass to become significantly higher than that at the lower rock mass. It was determined that under different degrees of compression, the rock mass of coal mine gobs could be divided, from the bottom to the top, into a lower insufficient compression zone (ICZ) and an upper sufficient compression zone (SCZ). From bottom to top, the void ratios in the ICZ sharply decreased and those in the SCZ slowly decreased. Void ratios in the ICZ were 1.2–1.7 times higher than those in the SCZ.