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Earthquake Science

, Volume 23, Issue 6, pp 535–539 | Cite as

Doppler effect of the rupture process of the great MW7.9 Wenchuan earthquake

  • Ge Jin
  • Youcai Tang
  • Shiyong Zhou
  • Yongshun John Chen
Article
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Abstract

In this study we performed a classical spectrum analysis of seismic waveforms recorded at far field stations of the great MW7.9 Wenchuan earthquake to observe the shifts of the corner frequency with azimuth due to the Doppler effect. Our results show that this damaging great earthquake had a dominating rupture propagation direction of 64.0°. The equivalent radius of the fault rupture surface was estimated to be 33 km, yielding the rupture area of about 3 500 km2. Thus the length of the rupture fault surface is about 230 km if the depth (or width) extent is 15 km. The computer program developed in this study can quickly provide the information about the source of a future large (damaging) earthquake, which could be very useful for predicting aftershocks and planning the rescue operations.

Key words

Doppler effect rupture process Wenchuan earthquake corner frequency unidirectional 

CLC number

P315.3+3 
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Copyright information

© The Seismological Society of China and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Ge Jin
    • 1
    • 2
  • Youcai Tang
    • 1
  • Shiyong Zhou
    • 1
  • Yongshun John Chen
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of Theoretical and Applied Geophysics (ITAG), School of Earth and Space SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
  2. 2.Lamont-Doherty Earth ObservatoryColumbia University in the New York CityPalisadesUSA

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