Normal Faulting Type Earthquake Activities in the Tibetan Plateau and Its Tectonic Implication

• Published in: Acta geologica Sinica (Beijing) Vol. 84; no. 1; pp. 135 - 144
• Main Authors: XU, Jiren, ZHAO, Zhixin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-02-2010; Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037
• Subjects: eastward extensional motion; focal mechanism solution; gravitational collapse; normal faulting earthquake; stress field; 伸展运动; 地球物理资料; 地震活动; 构造意义; 正断层; 西藏高原; 青藏高原东部; 高原型; eastward extensional motion; stress field; normal faulting earthquake; focal mechanism solution; gravitational collapse
• ISSN: 1000-9515; 1755-6724
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00175.x

This paper analyzes various earthquake fault types, mechanism solutions, stress field as well as other geophysical data to study the crust movement in the Tibetan plateau and its tectonic implications. The results show that a lot of normal faulting type earthquakes concentrate in the central Tibetan plateau. Many of them are nearly perfect normal fault events. The strikes of the fault planes of the normal faulting earthquakes are almost in the N-S direction based on the analyses of the equal area projection diagrams of fault plane solutions. It implies that the dislocation slip vectors of the normal faulting type events have quite great components in the E-W direction. The extension is probably an eastward extensional motion, mainly a tectonic active regime in the altitudes of the plateau. The tensional stress in the E-W or WNW-ESE direction predominates the earthquake occurrence in the normal event region of the central plateau. A number of thrust fault and strike-slip fault type earthquakes with strong compressive stress nearly in the NNE-SSW direction occurred on the edges of the plateau. The eastward extensional motion in the Tibetan plateau is attributable to the eastward movement of materials in the upper mantle based on_seismo-tomographic results. The eastward extensional motion in the Tibetan plateau may be related to the eastward extrusion of hotter mantle materials beneath the east boundary of the plateau. The northward motion of the Tibetan plateau shortened in the N-S direction probably encounters strong obstructions at the western and northern margins. Extensional motions from the relaxation of the topography and/or gravitational collapse in the altitudes of the plateau occur hardly in the N-S direction. The obstruction for the plateau to move eastward is rather weak.