Abstract
Since water storage, earthquakes occurred in Badong County, Hubei Province, accounted for as much as one-third of the strong earthquakes in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. For example, the MS5.1 earthquake occurred in December 2013 near the Gaoqiao fault in Badong County. The earthquake time, magnitude, and location analysis showed that reservoir earthquakes in this area exhibited some characteristics, such as periodicity, migration, and deep extension. Based on the regional stratum lithology and structural characteristics, this paper designed a curved joint on a small scale to simulate the structural morphology of the Gaoqiao fault and carried out triaxial compression tests under different immersion times to analyze the morphological parameters of the joint surface. The results showed that topological parameters such as root mean square height (Sq), arithmetic average height (Sa), reverse load area ratio (Smc), and minimum autocorrelation length (Sal) could effectively characterize the degree of damage and deterioration of curved joints. The test privides a reference for analyzing the evolution law of the seismic characteristics of the reservoir.
Highlights
In the construction of engineering activities, such as reservoirs and energy exploitation, human beings found the induced earthquakes [1] and began to study their temporal and spatial distribution [2,3,4,5], regional lithology [6,7,8], and dynamic response [9].Reservoir earthquake is a geological phenomenon with complex seismic geology, long duration, and varying damage degrees
The results showed that topological parameters such as root mean square height (Sq), arithmetic average height (Sa), reverse load area ratio (Smc), and minimum autocorrelation length (Sal) could effectively characterize the degree of damage and deterioration of curved joints
The seismicity includes the increase in seismic activity after water storage [11], weakening [12], periodic changes, changes during an earthquake [13], etc
Summary
In the construction of engineering activities, such as reservoirs and energy exploitation, human beings found the induced earthquakes [1] and began to study their temporal and spatial distribution [2,3,4,5], regional lithology [6,7,8], and dynamic response [9]. Long-term soaking was carried out for the limestone in the seismic area of the reservoir, and triaxial compression tests considering the water pressure of the fissure were carried out to study the morphological characteristics of the joint surface. The results indicated that the changes in the morphological characteristics of the joint surfaces could explain the seismic laws of the reservoir in the listric fault structure area. From mid-2017 to 2018, the number of reservoir earthquakes rebounded again, entering a relatively active period. The earthquake distribution has been concentrated and mostly near the Gaoqiao fault during the relatively active period of reservoir earthquakes from 2009 to 2010, the trend of the epicenter moving to the periphery is obvious. From 2016 to 2020, many earthquakes with a depth of about 20 km have occurred in the reservoir area, indicating that the scope of influence of the reservoir water is extending to the deep crust
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