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EARTHQUAKE ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (1): 69-77.

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Effects of the 2015 Nepal MS8.1 Earthquake on Mainland China based on Coulomb Stress Changes

XU Jing1, LI Hai-yan2, SHAO Zhi-gang2, FENG Jian-gang3, ZHANG Zhu-qi4   

  1. 1. Second Crust Monitoring Center, CEA, Xi’an 710054, China;
    2. Institute of EarthquakeScience, CEA, Beijing 100036, China;
    3. Earthquake Administration of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China;
    4. Institute of Geology, CEA, Beijing 100029, China
  • Received:2015-06-19 Published:2020-07-03

Abstract: Using the multi-layered viscoelastic media, we simulated coseismic and postseismic surface displacements caused by the April 25, 2015 Nepal MS8.1 earthquake, and then calculated the Coulomb failure stress changes on major faults of the Tibetan plateau and its surrounding caused by the coseismic dislocation and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation effects of the Nepal large earthquake. The surface displacement shows that the Nepal large earthquake mainly influences the Lhasa block and Qiangtang block, making the Lhasa block converge to the Himalayan tectonic belt. Vertical displacements of the Lhasa block predominately drop down in the coseismic stage and rise up in the postseismic stage. The calculated results of the static Coulomb failure stress changes indicate that, the Nepal large earthquake significantly influence tensional faults in central and southern Tibetan plateau, among the faults, the tension faults in the north of the Nepal earthquake take a significant increasing of Coulomb stress and the Coulomb stress in some specific fault segments increase more than 0.01 MPa, while the tension faults on both sides of the earthquake have a significant decreasing of Coulomb stress. In addition, Coulomb stress changes on the strike-slip faults in central Tibetan plateau are mainly increased which has been caused by the Nepal large earthquake, however, Coulomb stress changes on the faults of the North-South Seismic Belt are mainly slightly decreased by the Nepal large earthquake.

Key words: Interactions between faults, Coulomb failure stress changes, Tibetan Plateau, The 2015 Nepal MS8.1 earthquake

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