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Preliminary analysis on the source properties and seismogenic structure of the 2017 Ms7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake

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Abstract

At GMT time 13:19, August 8, 2017, an Ms7.0 earthquake struck the Jiuzhaigou region in Sichuan Province, China, causing severe damages and casualties. To investigate the source properties, seismogenic structures, and seismic hazards, we systematically analyzed the tectonic environment, crustal velocity structure in the source region, source parameters and rupture process, Coulomb failure stress changes, and 3-D features of the rupture plane of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake. Our results indicate the following: (1) The Jiuzhaigou earthquake occurred on an unmarked fault belonging to the transition zone of the east Kunlun fault system and is located northwest of the Huya fault. (2) Both the mainshock and aftershock rupture zones are located in a region where crustal seismic velocity changes dramatically. Southeast to the source region, shear wave velocity at the middle to lower crust is significantly low, but it rapidly increases northeastward and lies close to the background velocity across the rupture fault. (3) The aftershock zone is narrow and distributes along the northwest-southeast trend, and most aftershocks occur within a depth range of 5–20 km. (4) The focal mechanism of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake indicates a left-lateral strike-slip fault, with strike, dip, and rake angles of 152°, 74° and 8°, respectively. The hypocenter depth measures 20 km, whereas the centroid depth is about 6 km. The co-seismic rupture mainly concentrates at depths of 3–13 km, with a moment magnitude (Mw) of 6.5. (5) The co-seismic rupture also strengthens the Coulomb failure stress at the two ends of the rupture fault and the east segment of the Tazang fault. Aftershocks relocation results together with geological surveys indicate that the causative fault is a near vertical fault with notable spatial variations: dip angle varies within 66°–89° from northwest to southeast and the average dip angle measures ~84°. The results of this work are of fundamental importance for further studies on the source characteristics, tectonic environment, and seismic hazard evaluation of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the associate editor Prof. Ling Chen, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the support by the Monitoring and Forecasting Department, CEA. All regional seismic waveform data used in this study were provided by the Data Management Centre of China National Seismic Network at Institute of Geophysics (doi: 10.11998/SeisDmc/SN), China National Seismic Network, CEA and Sichuan Earthquake Administration. Teleseismic data were obtained from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center (IRIS-DMC). The figures were drawn by GMT software. The work was jointly funded by the Seismological Bureau Spark Program Project (Grant No. XH15007), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41604058, 41574057, 41621091), and the Sichuan-Yunnan National Seismological Monitoring and Prediction Experimental Station Project (Grant No. 2016CESE0204).

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Xie, Z., Zheng, Y., Yao, H. et al. Preliminary analysis on the source properties and seismogenic structure of the 2017 Ms7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 339–352 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9161-y

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