Abstract
We located the aftershocks of the 4 February 1975 Haicheng, China, aftershock sequence using an arrival time difference (ATD) simultaneous inversion method for determining the near-source (in situ) velocity and the location of the aftershocks with respect to a master event. The aftershocks define a diffuse zone, 70 km × 25 km, trending west-northwest, perpendicular to the major structural trend of the region. The main shock and most of the large aftershocks have strike-slip fault plane solutions. The preferred fault plane strikes west-northwest, and the inferred sense of motion is left-lateral. The entire Haicheng earthquake sequence appears to have been the response of an intensely faulted range boundary to a primarily east-west crustal compression and/or north-south extension. The calculated upper mantle P-wave velocity is 7.6 ± 0.09 km/sec, and the inferred crustal thickness is between 31 and 32.5 km. The low upper mantle velocity and thin crust may be indicative of local lithospheric extension.
