Earthquake Science最新文献

Owing to the stochastic behavior of earthquakes and complex crustal structure, wave type and incident direction are uncertain when seismic waves arrive at a structure. In addition, because of the different types of the structures and terrains, the traveling wave effects have different influences on the dynamic response of the structures. For the tall concrete-faced rockfill dam (CFRD), it is not only built in the complex terrain such as river valley, but also its height has reached 300 m level, which puts forward higher requirements for the seismic safety of the anti-seepage system mainly comprising concrete face slabs, especially the accurate location of the weak area in seism. Considering the limitations of the traditional uniform vibration analysis method, we implemented an efficient dynamic interaction analysis between a tall CFRD and its foundation using a non-uniform wave input method with a viscous-spring artificial boundary and equivalent nodal loads. This method was then applied to investigate the dynamic stress distribution on the concrete face slabs for different seismic wave types and incident directions. The results indicate that dam-foundation interactions behave differently at different wave incident angles, and that the traveling wave effect becomes more evident in valley topography. Seismic wave type and incident direction dramatically influenced stress in the face slab, and the extreme stress values and distribution law will vary under oblique wave incidence. The influence of the incident direction on slab stress was particularly apparent when SH-waves arrived from the left bank. Specifically, the extreme stress values in the face slab increased with an increasing incident angle. Interestingly, the locations of the extreme stress values changed mainly along the axis of the dam, and did not exhibit large changes in height. The seismic safety of CFRDs is therefore lower at higher incident angles from an anti-seepage perspective. Therefore, it is necessary to consider both the seismic wave type and incident direction during seismic capacity evaluations of tall CFRDs.

Research has been conducted on reservoir-induced earthquakes in China since the Xinfengjiang reservoir-induced earthquakes in the 1960s. Regulations now require the risk of reservoir-induced earthquakes to be evaluated in the pre-research stage of all hydropower projects. Although nearly 40 cases of reservoir-induced earthquakes have been reported in China, analyses comparing the changes in seismic activity following reservoir impoundment with predictions are rare. In this study, we compared seismic activities observed in the reservoir area before and after the impoundment of the Xiluodu hydropower station in terms of the spatial distribution, frequency, and focal depths of the earthquakes, and clarified the correlation between their frequency/timing and reservoir level after impoundment. We then concluded that the seismic events in the head region were karst-type earthquakes, while those in the second segment of the reservoir were tectonic earthquakes. The spatial distribution of the earthquake epicenters and the seismic intensities validated some of the results for the reservoir-induced seismic risk assessment for the Xiluodu hydropower station, indicating that the proposed earthquake triggers and predictive models are reasonable. This study can provide a valuable reference for investigating the mechanism (s) of reservoir-induced earthquakes, revising reservoir-induced earthquake hazard assessment codes, and predicting the hazard zones of reservoir-induced seismicity under similar conditions.

Simulations of the spontaneous rupture of potential earthquakes in the vicinity of reservoir dams can provide accurate parameters for seismic resilience assessment, which is essential for improving the seismic performance of reservoir dams. In simulations of potential spontaneous ruptures, fault geometry, regional stress fields, constitutive parameters of the fault friction law, and many other factors control the slip rate, morphology, and dislocation of the rupture, thereby affecting the simulated ground motion parameters. The focus of this study was to elucidate the effects of the background stress field on the nucleation and propagation of spontaneous ruptures based on the factors influencing potential M > 7 earthquake events on the Leibo Middle Fault (LBMF) and the Mabian-Yanjing Fault (MB-YJF) in the Xiluodu dam (XLD) region. Our simulation results show that the magnitude of the regional background stress field plays a decisive role in whether a destructive earthquake exceeding the critical magnitude will occur. We found that the direction and magnitude of the regional stress significantly affect the range of rupture propagation on the fault plane, and fault geometry affects the spatial distribution of the rupture range. Under the same regional stress field magnitude and orientation, a more destructive, high-magnitude earthquake is more likely to occur on the LBMF than on the MB-YJF.

Seismic hazard analyses are mainly performed using either deterministic or probabilistic methods. However, there are still some defects in these statistical model-based approaches for regional seismic risk assessment affected by the near-field of large earthquakes. Therefore, we established a deterministic seismic hazard analysis method that can characterize the entire process of ground motion propagation based on stochastic finite-fault simulation, and we chose the site of the Xiluodu dam to demonstrate the method. This method can characterize earthquake source properties more realistically than other methods and consider factors such as the path and site attenuation of seismic waves. It also has high computational efficiency and is convenient for engineering applications. We first analyzed the complexity of seismogenic structures in the Xiluodu dam site area, and then an evaluation system for ground motion parameters that considers various uncertainties is constructed based on a stochastic finite-fault simulation. Finally, we assessed the seismic hazard of the dam site area comprehensively. The proposed method was able to take into account the complexity of the seismogenic structures affecting the dam site and provide multi-level parameter evaluation results corresponding to different risk levels. These results can be used to construct a dam safety assessment system of an earthquake in advance that provides technical support for rapidly and accurately assessing the post-earthquake damage state of a dam, thus determining the influence of an earthquake on dam safety and mitigating the risk of potential secondary disasters.

The current Chinese national standard, the Standard for Seismic Design of Hydraulic Structures (GB51247), released in 2018, is strictly based on China’s national conditions and dam engineering features. A comprehensive and systematic overview of the basis of the seismic fortification requirements, the framework of the fortification criteria, and the mechanisms of seismic input related to the seismic design of dams are presented herein. We first analyzed and clarified several conceptual aspects in traditional seismic design of dams. Then, for the seismic input at the dam site described in the first national standard for hydraulic structures, we expounded innovative concepts, ideas, and methods to make relevant provisions more realistic and practical and discussed whether reservoir earthquakes must be included in the seismic fortification framework of dams. This study seeks to incorporate seismic input at the dam site into traditional seismic design practice to promote its improvement from the quasi-static method to the dynamic method and from the closed vibration system to an open wave propagation system, to ensure that the seismic design of dams becomes more reasonable, reliable, scientific, and economic.

The deep structure of the eastward-subducting Indian plate can provide new information on the dynamics of the India-Eurasia collision. We collected and processed waveform data from temporary seismic arrays (networks) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, seismic arrays in Northeast India and Myanmar, and permanent stations of the China Digital Seismic Network in Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Sichuan. We combined these data with phase reports from observation stations of the International Seismological Center on the Indian plate and selected 124,808 high-quality P-wave relative travel-time residuals. Next, we used these data to invert the 3-D P-wave velocity structure of the upper mantle to a depth of 800 km beneath the eastern segment of the arcuate Himalayan orogen, at the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal a high-angle, easterly dipping subducting plate extending more than 200 km beneath the Indo-Myanmese arc. The plate breaks off at roughly 96°E; its fragments have passed through the 410-km discontinuity (D410) into the mantle transition zone (MTZ). The MTZ beneath the Tengchong volcanic area contains a high-velocity anomaly, which does not exceed the Red River fault to the east. No other large-scale continuous subducted plates were observed in the MTZ. However, a horizontally spreading high-velocity anomaly was identified on the D410 in some regions. The anomaly may represent the negatively buoyant 90°E Ridge plate or a thickened and delaminated lithospheric block experiencing collision and compression at the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The Tengchong volcano may originate from the mantle upwelling through the slab window formed by the break-off of the subducting Indian continental plate and oceanic plate in the upper mantle. Low-velocity upper mantle materials on the west side of the Indo-Myanmese arc may have supplemented materials to the Tengchong volcano.

The Yangbi M_S6.4 earthquake occurred on May 21, 2021 in western Yunnan, China, where moderate earthquakes strike frequently. It exhibited a typical “foreshock-mainshock-aftershock” sequence and did not occur on a pre-existing active fault. The seismogenic environment and mechanism of this earthquake have aroused considerable research attention. In this study, we obtain the three-dimensional v_P, v_S and v_P/v_S images using the v_P/v_S consistency-constrained double-difference tomography method, which improves the accuracy of v_P/v_S models. We focus on characteristics of v_P/v_S images in areas with a lateral resolution of 0.1°, and reveal the seismogenic environment of the Yangbi M_S6.4 earthquake. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Low velocity and high-v_P/v_S anomalies are revealed at different depths around the northern segment of the Red River fault. v_S and v_P/v_S images along the Weixi-Qiaohou-Weishan fault and the buried faults on its west show obviously segmented feature. (2) The source region of the Yangbi M_S6.4 earthquake is located in a low-v_P/v_S zone implying high medium strength. High-v_P/v_S anomalies in its NW direction indicate cracks development and the existence of fluids or partial melts, which are unfavorable for stress accumulation and triggering large earthquakes. Such conditions have also prevented the earthquake sequence from extending northwestward. (3) With the southeastward extrusion of materials from the Tibetan Plateau, fluid migration was blocked by the low-v_P/v_S body in the source region. The high-v_P/v_S anomaly beneath the source region may implies that the fluids or partial melts in the middle and lower crust gradually weakened medium strength at the bottom of the seismogenic layer, and preparing the largest foreshock in the transition zone of high to low v_P/v_S. Meanwhile, tectonic stress incessantly accumulated in the brittle upper crust, eventually led to the M_S6.4 earthquake occurrence.

Evaluation of numerical earthquake forecasting models needs to consider two issues of equal importance: the application scenario of the simulation, and the complexity of the model. Criterion of the evaluation-based model selection faces some interesting problems in need of discussion.

The July 2019 M_W6.4 Ridgecrest, California earthquake and its distinct foreshocks were well recorded by local and regional stations, providing a great opportunity to characterize its foreshocks and investigate the nucleation mechanisms of the mainshock. In this study, we utilized the match-and-locate (M&L) method to build a high-precision foreshock catalog for this M_W6.4 earthquake. Compared with the sequential location methods (matched-filter + cross-correlation-based hypoDD), our new catalog contains more events with higher location accuracy. The M_W6.4 mainshock was preceded by 40 foreshocks within ∼2 h (on July 4, 2019 from 15:35:29 to 17:32:52, UTC). Their spatiotemporal distribution revealed a complex seismogenic structure consisting of multiple fault strands, which were connected as a throughgoing fault by later foreshocks and eventually accommodated the 2019 M_W6.4 mainshock. To better understand the nucleation mechanism, we determined the rupture dimension of the largest M_L4.0 foreshock by calculating its initial rupture and centroid points using the M&L method. By estimating Coulomb stress change we suggested that the majority of foreshocks following the M_L4.0 event and M_W6.4 mainshock occurred within regions of increasing Coulomb stress, indicating that they were triggered by stress transfer. The nucleation process before the M_L4.0 event remains unclear due to the insufficient sampling rate of waveforms and small magnitude of events. Thus, our study demonstrates that the M&L method has superior detection and location ability, showing potential for studies that require high-precision location (e.g., earthquake nucleation).