DETAILED TEMPORAL-SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF INDUCED EARTHQUAKES BY WATER INJECTION IN RONGCHANG,CHONGQING |
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| Authors: | WANG Zhi-wei WANG Xiao-long MA Sheng-li LEI Xing-lin LIU Pei-xun |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;
2. Chongqing Earthquake Administration, Chongqing 401147, China;
3. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Tsukuba, 305-8567, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Based on the seismic data collected from regional permanent stations and 6 temporal stations, we analyzed the seismic activity from October 2008 to July 2011 in Rongchang area. On the basis of HypoDD relocated results, we used Match&Locate method to detect and located the micro-earthquakes. We obtained the focal mechanism solutions of some earthquakes with ML ≥ 3.5 by using CAP method. Then we analyzed the temporal-spatial distribution of earthquakes and discussed the characteristics of micro-seismicity before the ML5.1 earthquake occurring on September 10, 2010. We totally detected 3 354 micro-earthquake events, which are nearly 5 times of the earthquakes in the seismic catalog issued by China Earthquake Networks Center. The magnitude of the detected events is mostly from ML-1 to 1, and the focal depth is from 2 to 4km. The magnitude-frequency analysis shows that the catalog completeness is obviously improved after adding the detected earthquakes, with the lowest magnitude decreasing from ML1.0 to 0.3. The earthquakes hypocenters are mainly clustered along faults or buried faults and in a dominant depth range consistent with the depth of injection wells, and also show a tendency of lateral extension from injection wells. The focal mechanism solutions of 9 earthquakes of ML ≥ 3.5 presented reverse faulting, as the same as the preexisting faults, indicating that earthquakes were surely related to reactivation of the faults. The strike, dip and rate of the causative faults separated in wide ranges, which indicates not only obvious changes in structure and strike of preexisting faults but also the effect of increasing pore pressure on the local stress field. Before the ML5.1 earthquake on September 10 of 2010, seismicity firstly showed clustering in time and covered the most part of the seismogenic fault in space. Then an obvious seismic quiescence occurred and lasted about 3 months. The phenomenon is consistent with the mechanism of creep sliding and resistance-uniformization along the fault zone, suggested on the basis of laboratory experiments, and it may be one of patterns of sub-instability along fault zone. However, such explanation needs to be further confirmed. |
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| Keywords: | earthquake relocation microearthquake detection focal mechanism induced earthquake Rongchang |
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