HOLOCENE PALAEOSEISMOLOGIC RECORD AND RUPTURE BEHAVIOR OF LARGE EARTHQUAKES ON THE XIANSHUIHE FAULT |
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| Authors: | LI Dong-yu CHEN Li-chun LIANG Ming-jian GAO Shuai-po ZENG Di WANG Hu LI Yan-bao |
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| Institution: | 1.Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;2.Earthquake Administration of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610041, China |
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| Abstract: | The Xianshuihe Fault, the boundary of Bayan Har active tectonic block and Sichuan-Yunnan active tectonic block, is one of the most active fault zones in the world. In the past nearly 300 years, 9 historical earthquakes of magnitude ≥ 7 have been recorded. Since 2008, several catastrophic earthquakes, such as Wenchuan MS8 earthquake, Yushu MS7.1 earthquake and Lushan MS7 earthquake, have occurred on the other Bayan Har block boundary fault zones. However, only the Kangding MS6.3 earthquake in 2014 was documented on the Xianshuihe Fault. Thus, the study of surface deformation and rupture behavior of large earthquakes in the late Quaternary on the Xianshuihe Fault is of fundamental importance for understanding the future seismic risk of this fault, and even the entire western Sichuan region. On the basis of the former work, combined with our detailed geomorphic and geological survey, we excavated a combined trench on the Qianning segment of Xianshuihe fault zone which has a long elapse time. Charcoal and woods in the trench are abundant. 30 samples were dated to constrain the ages of the paleoseismic events. Five events were identified in the past 9 000 years, whose ages are:8070-6395 BC, 5445-5125 BC, 4355-4180 BC, 625-1240 AD and the Qianning earthquake in 1893. The large earthquake recurrence behavior on this segment does not follow the characteristic earthquake recurrence model. The recurrence interval is 1000~2000 years in early period and in turn there is a quiet period of about 5 000 years after 4355-4180 BC event. Then it enters the active period again. Two earthquakes with surface rupture occurred in the past 1000 years and the latest two earthquakes may have lower magnitude. The left-lateral coseismic displacement of the 1893 Qianning earthquake is about 2.9m. |
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| Keywords: | Xianshuihe fault zone Qianning segment paleoearthquake earthquake recurrence behavior Bayan Har block |
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