characteristics of recent crustal movement in the north section of north-south seismic belt |
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| Authors: | WANG Jing CHAI Chi-zhang MA He-qing ZENG Xian-wei LI Guo-bin |
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| Institution: | Earthquake Administration of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan 750001, China |
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| Abstract: | Tectonic activity is intense and destructive earthquakes occur frequently in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt(NSSB). After the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the North-South Seismic Belt enters a new period of high seismicity. On July 22, 2013, the Minxian-Zhangxian earthquake occurred, which broke the 10-years seismic quiescence of magnitude 6 of the area, indicating an increasing trend of strong earthquakes in the region. Earthquake is the product of crustal movement. Understanding the dynamics of the process of crustal movement may provide basis for earthquake prediction. GPS measurement can provide high-precision, large-scale, quasi-real-time quantitative crustal movement data, that allows us to explore the evolution of crustal movement and its relationship with earthquake, thus providing the basis for determining the seismic situation. Since 2009, the density of mobile GPS measurement stations has significantly improved in the Chinese mainland, and moreover, the Wenchuan earthquake has brought about adjustment of the regional crustal deformation regime. So the introduction of the latest repeat GPS data is important for understanding the features of crustal movement in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt. In this paper, we obtained the GPS velocity field, fault profile and baseline time series and analyzed the dynamics of recent crustal movement in the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt using the 1999a-2014a GPS data of mobile and continuous GPS measurement stations. The results show that: the Qilianshan Fault has a high strain accumulation background. There are locked portions on the Liupanshan Fault, especially in the region of Jingning, Pingling, Dingxi, Longxi. In 2004-2009a, the degree of locking of the Liupanshan Fault got higher. In 2009—2013a, crustal movement on the northern section of the North-South Seismic Belt weakened compared with 1999-2004, 2004-2009, and showed some features as follows: ① The velocity field weakened more markedly near the Qilian-Haiyuan-Liupanshan faults; ②The velocity decreased more significantly in the region north of Qilianshan-Haiyuan Fault than that of the south, resulting in enhanced thrust deformation on the Qilianshan Fault in 2009-2013a and the decreased sinistral shear deformation on the Qilianshan Fault and Haiyuan Fault; ③the velocity field decreased more remarkably at 50km west of Liupanshan Fault, compared to the east region, which led to the locked range on the Liupanshan Fault extending to the range of 100km near the fault zone during 2009-2013 from the previous locked range of 50km near the fault. The GPS baseline time series analysis also reveals a number of structural features in the region: Yinchuan Graben is continuing extending, and the extension in the west is stronger than that in the east. On the southern end of Yinchuan Graben, the deformation is very small. |
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| Keywords: | north section of North-South Seismic Belt crustal movement GPS |
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