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Surface Ruptures (surface + rupture)

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Earth and Environmental Science	100%

Selected Abstracts

New Research Results on Mechanism, Surface Rupture, Deep Controlling Factors and Stress Measurements of the Wenchuan Earthquake,Earth Scientists' Post-quake Actions

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 4 2009
Shuwen DONG
First page of article [source]

Surface Rupture and Co-seismic Displacement Produced by the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of May 12th, 2008, Sichuan, China: Eastwards Growth of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 5 2008
DONG Shuwen
Abstract An earthquake of Ms 8 struck Wenchuan County, western Sichuan, China, on May 12th, 2008 and resulted in long surface ruptures (>300 km). The first-hand observations about the surface ruptures produced by the earthquake in the worst-hit areas of Yingxiu, Beichuan and Qingchuan, ascertained that the causative structure of the earthquake was in the central fault zones of the Longmenshan tectonic belt. Average co-seismic vertical displacements along the individual fault of the Yingxiu-Beichuan rupture zone reach 2.5-4 m and the cumulative vertical displacements across the central and frontal Longmenshan fault belt is about 5,6 m. The surface rupture strength was reduced from north of Beichuan to Qingchuan County and shows 2,3 m dextral strike-slip component. The Wenchuan thrust-faulting earthquake is a manifestation of eastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau under the action of continuous convergence of the Indian and Eurasian continents. [source]

Parameters of Coseismic Reverse- and Oblique-Slip Surface Ruptures of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, Eastern Tibetan Plateau

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 4 2009
Xiwei XU
Abstract: On May 12th, 2008, the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured the Beichuan, Pengguan and Xiaoyudong faults simultaneously along the middle segment of the Longmenshan thrust belt at the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau. Field investigations constrain the surface rupture pattern, length and offsets related to the Wenchuan earthquake. The Beichuan fault has a NE-trending right-lateral reverse rupture with a total length of 240 km. Reassessment yields a maximum vertical offset of 6.5 ± 0.5 m and a maximum right-lateral offset of 4.9 ± 0.5 m for its northern segment, which are the largest offsets found; the maximum vertical offset is 6.2 ± 0.5 m for its southern segment. The Pengguan fault has a NE-trending pure reverse rupture about 72 km long with a maximum vertical offset of about 3.5 m. The Xiaoyudong fault has a NW-striking left-lateral reverse rupture about 7 km long between the Beichuan and Pengguan faults, with a maximum vertical offset of 3.4 m and left-lateral offset of 3.5 m. This pattern of multiple co-seismic surface ruptures is among the most complicated of recent great earthquakes and presents a much larger danger than if they ruptured individually. The rupture length is the longest for reverse faulting events ever reported. [source]

Fault rock analysis of the northern part of the Chelungpu Fault and its relation to earthquake faulting of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, Taiwan

ISLAND ARC, Issue 1 2005
Kohtaro UjiieArticle first published online: 3 MAR 200
Abstract The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan (Mw = 7.6) produced a surface rupture along the north,south-striking Chelungpu thrust fault with pure dip-slip (east side up) and left lateral strike-slip displacements. Near-field strong-motion data for the northern part of the fault illustrate a distinct lack of the high-frequency seismic radiation associated with a large slip (10,15 m) and a rapid slip velocity (2,4 m/s), suggesting a smooth seismic slip associated with low dynamic frictional resistance on the fault. A drillhole was constructed at shallow depths in the possible fault zones of the northern part of the Chelungpu Fault, which may have slipped during the 1999 earthquake. One of the zones consists of a 20-cm-thick, unconsolidated fault breccia with a chaotic texture lacking both discrete slip surfaces (e.g. Riedel shears) and grain crushing. Other possible fault zones are marked by the narrow (less than a few centimeters) gouge zone in which clayey material intrudes into the damaged zone outside of the gouge zone. These characteristic fault rock textures suggest that the slip mechanisms at shallow levels during the earthquake involved either granular flow of initially unconsolidated material or slip localization under elevated pore pressure along the narrow clayey gouge zone. Because both mechanisms lead to low dynamic frictional resistance on the fault, the rapid seismic slip in the deep portions of the fault (i.e. the source region of strong-motion radiation) could have been accommodated by frictionless slip on the shallow portions of the fault. The combination of strong-motion data and fault rock analysis suggests that smooth slip associated with low dynamic friction occurred on both the deep and shallow portions of the fault, resulting in a large slip between the source region and the surface in the northern region. [source]

Stresses at sites close to the Nojima Fault measured from core samples

ISLAND ARC, Issue 3-4 2001
Kiyohiko Yamamoto
Abstract The Nojima Fault in Awaji, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, was ruptured during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake (MJMA = 7.2). Toshima is located close to the fault segment, in which a large dislocation has been observed on the Earth's surface. Ikuha is near the southern end of the buried fault that extends from the surface rupture. Stresses are measured on core samples taken at depths of 310 m, 312 m and 415 m at Toshima and a depth of 351 m at Ikuha. The measured stresses show that both sites are in the field of a strike,slip regime, but compression dominates at Toshima. Defining the relative shear stress as the maximum shear stress divided by the normal stress on the maximum shear plane, the relative shear stress ranges from 0.42 to 0.54 at Toshima and is approximately 0.32 at Ikuha. While the value at Ikuha is moderate, those at Toshima are comparably large to those in areas close to the inferred fault of the 1984 Nagano-ken Seibu earthquake. Value amounts greater than 0.4 suggest that there are areas of large relative shear stress along faults, thus having the potential to generate earthquakes. Provided that the cores are correctly oriented, the largest horizontal stresses at shallow depths are in the direction from N113°E to N139°E at Toshima and N74°E at Ikuha, indicating that the fault does not orient optimally for the stress field at both sites. The slip is known to be predominant in the right-lateral strike,slip component. Although this slip may appear contradictory to the stress field at Toshima, the slip direction is found to be parallel to the measured stresses resolved on the fault plane for the first approximation. The ratio of shear stress to normal stress on the fault plane is roughly estimated to be greater than zero and smaller than 0.3 near Toshima. [source]

Quaternary vertical offset and average slip rate of the Nojima Fault on Awaji Island, Japan

ISLAND ARC, Issue 3-4 2001
Akihiro Murata
Abstract Drilling was carried out to penetrate the Nojima Fault where the surface rupture occurred associated with the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. Two 500 m boreholes were successfully drilled through the fault zone at a depth of 389.4 m. The drilling data show that the relative uplift of the south-east side of the Nojima Fault (south-west segment) was approximately 230 m. The Nojima branch fault, which branches from the Nojima Fault, is inferred to extend to the Asano Fault. From the structural contour map of basal unconformity of the Kobe Group, the vertical component of displacement of the Nojima branch,Asano Fault is estimated to be 260,310 m. Because the vertical component of displacement on the Nojima Fault of the north-east segment is a total of those of the Nojima Fault of the south-west segment and of the Nojima branch,Asano Fault, it is estimated to total to 490,540 m. From this, the average vertical component of the slip rate on the Nojima Fault is estimated to be 0.4,0.45 m/103 years for the past 1.2 million years. [source]

Distinguishing tectonic from climatic controls on range-front sedimentation

BASIN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007
M. C. Quigley
ABSTRACT Geologic and chronometric studies of alluvial fan sequences in south-central Australia provide insights into the roles of tectonics and climate in continental landscape evolution. The most voluminous alluvial fans in the Flinders Ranges region have developed adjacent to catchments uplifted by Plio-Quaternary reverse faults, implying that young tectonic activity has exerted a first-order control on long-term sediment accumulation rates along the range front. However, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of alluvial fan sequences indicates that late Quaternary facies changes and intervals of sediment aggradation and dissection are not directly correlated with individual faulting events. Fan sequences record a transition from debris flow deposition and soil formation to clast-supported conglomeritic sedimentation by ,30 ka. This transition is interpreted to reflect a landscape response to increasing climatic aridity, coupled with large flood events that episodically stripped previously weathered regolith from the landscape. Late Pleistocene to Holocene cycles of fan incision and aggradation post-date the youngest-dated surface ruptures and are interpreted to reflect changes in the frequency and magnitude of large floods. These datasets indicate that tectonic activity controlled long-term sediment supply but climate governed the spatial and temporal patterns of range-front sedimentation. Mild intraplate tectonism appears to have influenced Plio-Quaternary sedimentation patterns across much of the southern Australian continent, including the geometry and extent of alluvial fans and sea-level incursions. [source]

Parameters of Coseismic Reverse- and Oblique-Slip Surface Ruptures of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, Eastern Tibetan Plateau

Surface Rupture and Co-seismic Displacement Produced by the Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of May 12th, 2008, Sichuan, China: Eastwards Growth of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau