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EARTHQUAKE ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 136-145.

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Coulomb Stress Changes Imparted in the Rupture Zones of the Lushan Earthquake and the Kangding Earthquake by the 2008 Wenchuan MS8.0 Earthquake

LI Yan-e, CHEN Xue-zhong   

  1. Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100081, China
  • Received:2017-06-22 Online:2019-01-31 Published:2019-01-31

Abstract: On 12 May 2008 a strong MS8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan, Sichuan province, China. After the MS8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, two earthquakes of MS7.0 and MS6.3 occurred on 20 April 2013 and 22 November 2014 respectively. Their epicenters are located in Lushan, Sichuan and Kangding, Sichuan, southwest of the epicenter of the MS8.0 Wenchuan event with distances of about 80 km and 178 km. The Lushan earthquake was located at the frontier boundary of the Longmenshan mountain, and the Kangding earthquake was located on the Xainshuihe fault. Till the Lushan earthquake, several authors have calculated the Coulomb stress change imparted by the MS8.0 Wenchuan earthquake and analyzed its effect on the surrounding faults. In this paper, after a brief review of their results, the Coulomb stress changes imparted by the MS8.0 Wenchuan earthquake on the horizontal plane at the focal depth and the focal fault planes of the Lushan and the Kangding events were calculated. The Coulomb stress changes versus depth at their epicenters are obtained. The results show that the MS8.0 Wenchuan earthquake have made the stress on the focal fault plane of the Lushan event increased in a large area, and that on the focal fault plane of the Kangding event decreased in a large area. The Coulomb stress change at the initial rupture point for the Lushan event is 0.245 MPa, and for the Kangding event is -0.00063 MPa. Therefore, the MS8.0 Wenchuan earthquake would play a positive role in the occurrence of the Lushan event, but could has no significant effect on the occurrence of the Kangding event. Given parameters of the target fault plane, it could be possible that some clues for the epicenter of the future strong earthquake are provided according to the Coulomb stress changes on the horizontal plane at the focal depth and the focal fault plane, and then prediction for the future strong earthquake could be given. If a strong earthquake makes the stress on the target focal fault plane increased in a large area, the Coulomb stress change could be of important significance to the prediction of the future earthquakes.

Key words: Wenchuan MS8.0 earthquake, Lushan earthquake, Kangding earthquake, Coulomb stress, Earthquake prediction

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