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Five short historical earthquake surface ruptures near the Silk Road, Gansu Province, China

Xu Xiwei, Robert S. Yeats and Yu Guihua
Five short historical earthquake surface ruptures near the Silk Road, Gansu Province, China
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (April 2010) 100 (2): 541-561

Abstract

Five historical earthquakes (M> or =7) have occurred along the Hexi Corridor at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau since A.D. 180. These are the A.D. 180 Gaotai earthquake (M 7.5), the 1609 Hongyazi earthquake (M 7.25), the 1927 Gulang earthquake (M 8.0), the 1932 Changma earthquake (M 7.6), and the 1954 Shandan earthquake (M 7.3). They are predominantly reverse slip, except for the 1932 Changma and the 1954 Shandan earthquakes. The Changma earthquake is characterized by left-lateral faulting with a reverse component, while the Shandan earthquake by right-lateral faulting with a normal component. Field investigations indicate that the length of the surface-rupture zone is only 28 km for the A.D. 180 earthquake, 11 km for the 1609 earthquake, 23 km for the 1927 earthquake, and 5.1 km for the 1954 earthquake, much shorter than that predicted using an empirical equation between moment magnitude (M (sub w) ), surface-rupture length (SRL), coseismic displacement (D), maximum displacement (MD), average displacement (AD), and mode value combined displacement statistic (MVCDS): M (sub w) =5.91+0.609 log(SRLxD) for strike-slip faults, M (sub w) =5.81+0.653 log(SRLxD) for reverse faults, and M (sub w) =6.93+0.82 log(ADxMVCDS) for all faults. This may be common for reverse faulting earthquakes worldwide and suggests that trying to estimate magnitudes of past earthquakes from one type of even the most recent surface-rupture data is unreliable and the empirical equations between magnitude, coseismic slip, and surface-rupture length should be applied with caution to seismic hazard assessment on active thrust faults.


ISSN: 0037-1106
EISSN: 1943-3573
Coden: BSSAAP
Serial Title: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
Serial Volume: 100
Serial Issue: 2
Title: Five short historical earthquake surface ruptures near the Silk Road, Gansu Province, China
Affiliation: China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Geology, Beijing, China
Pages: 541-561
Published: 201004
Text Language: English
Publisher: Seismological Society of America, Berkeley, CA, United States
References: 51
Accession Number: 2010-037747
Categories: Seismology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. 2 tables, geol. sketch maps
N32°30'00" - N43°00'00", E93°30'00" - E109°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: Oregon State University, USA, United States
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Abstract, Copyright, Seismological Society of America. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States
Update Code: 201021
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