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Signature of Fault Healing in an Aftershock Sequence? The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

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Abstract

We analyzed the aftershock sequence of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake from May 12, 2008 to May 12, 2013 using the earthquake catalog of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). In the analysis performed, we took under consideration the temporary variation in the completeness of the earthquake catalog just after the Wenchuan mainshock. The cutoff completeness magnitude from May 12 to June 27, 2008 was above 3.0 due to the impact of the earthquake sequence on the seismological observatory practice. It was observed that the b value has an increasing trend from June 27, 2008 to late April 2009, while since May 2009, the b value has remained stable. If these characteristics were associated with the possible signature of fault healing, the ‘apparent healing time’ could be pinpointed by this measure as around 1 year. Due to two strong asperities present on the rupture of the Wenchuan mainshock, the aftershock zone can be divided into two segments, namely the north and the south segment. The b values of the two segments seem to show different trends of temporal variation. The main contribution of the increasing trend comes from the south segment, or the ‘initiation segment’ of the main rupture.

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Notes

  1. http://www.csndmc.ac.cn/wdc4seis@bj/earthquakes/csn_catalog_p001.jsp.

  2. Chinese Standard GB 17740-1999 General ruler for earthquake magnitude (in Chinese).

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Acknowledgments

The catalog data are taken from the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). Hui Jiang and Xiaoxiao Song provided helps in the processing of the catalog and the making of the figures as well as the revision. The suggestions of the referees as well as the guest editor helped much to the improvement of the paper, for which we are grateful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Shengfeng Zhang, Zhongliang Wu & Changsheng Jiang

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  1. Shengfeng Zhang
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  2. Zhongliang Wu
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Correspondence to Zhongliang Wu.

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Zhang, S., Wu, Z. & Jiang, C. Signature of Fault Healing in an Aftershock Sequence? The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Pure Appl. Geophys. 173, 73–84 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-015-1086-x

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