An Earthquake Fault Zone Discovered in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Abstract

The Maluxiang – Changduhe at Badong County is a newly discovered seismic active fault zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, and the occurrence of fault is EW / N ∠60 °-70 °. The fault appears as a deeply linear valley on the topography and the fault breccia bandwidth is up to 200m. The fault is densely distributed with many springs and covered by luxuriant forests. The new site of Badong County is set up on the top of fault zone, and exists a lot of active landslides. The tested data of the absolute age of the landslides slip zone soil indicates that the landslide is active since the late Pleistocene. The Three Gorges Reservoir has continued seismic activity since 2003, and the fault zone suffers the greatest damage which is the most direct evidence as an indication of fault activity. Therefore, research on the fault zone is very important and significant for immigrant settlement in the Three Gorges reservoir.