South China Sea Typhoon Hagibis enhanced Xinfengjiang Reservoir seismicity

Abstract

There was an evident increase in the number of earthquakes in the Xinfengjiang Reservoir from June to July 2014 after the landing of Typhoon Hagibis. To understand the spatial and temporal evolution of this microseismicity, we built a high-precision earthquake catalog for 2014 and relocated 2275 events using recently developed methods for event picking and catalog construction. Seismicity occurred in the southeastern part of the reservoir, with the preferred fault plane orientation aligned along the Heyuan Fault. The total seismic energy peaked when the typhoon passed through the reservoir, and seismicity correlated with typhoon energy. In contrast, a limited seismic response was observed during the later Typhoon Rammasun. Combining data regarding the water level in the Xinfengjiang Reservoir and seismicity frequency changes in the Taiwan region during these two typhoon events, we suggest that typhoon activity may increase microseism energy by impacting fault stability around the Xinfengjiang Reservoir. Whether a fault can be activated also depends on how close the stress accumulation is to its failure point.