THE COSEISMIC VERTICAL DISPLACEMENTS OF SURFACE RUPTURE ZONE OF THE 1556 HUAXIAN EARTHQUAKE |
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| Authors: | MA Ji FENG Xi-jie LI Gao-yang LI Xiao-ni ZHANG Yi |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Active Tectonics and Volcano, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;
2. Earthquake Administration of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an 710068, China |
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| Abstract: | Coseismic displacement plays a role in earthquake surface rupture, which not only reflects the magnitude scale but also has effect on estimates of fault slip rate and earthquake recurrence intervals. A great historical earthquake occurred in Huaxian County on the 23rd January 1556, however, there was lack of surface rupture records and precise coseismic vertical displacements. It's known that the 1556 Huaxian earthquake was caused by Huashan front fault and Weinan plateau front fault, which are large normal faults in the east part of the southern boundary faults in Weihe Basin controlling the development of the basin in Quaternary. Here, we made a study on three drilling sites in order to unveil the coseismic vertical displacements.
It is for the first time to get the accurate coseismic vertical displacements, which is 6m at Lijiapo site of Huashan front fault, 7m at Caiguocun site, and 6m at Guadicun site of Weinan plateau front fault. These coseismic displacements measured based on same layers of drilling profiles both at footwall and hanging wall are different from the results measured by former geomorphological fault scarps. It's estimated that some scarps are related with the nature reformation and the human beings' activities, for example, fluviation or terracing field, instead of earthquake acticity, which leads to some misjudgment on earthquake displacements. Moreover, the vertical displacements from the measurement of geomorphological scarps alone do not always agree with the virtual ones. Hence, we assume that the inconsistency between the results from drilling profiles and geomorphological scarps in this case demonstrates that the fault scarp surface may have been demolished and rebuilt by erosion or human activities. |
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| Keywords: | 1556 Huaxian earthquake coseismic vertical displacement Huashan front fault Weinan plateau front fault |
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