Crustal stress pattern in China and its adjacent areas

Abstract

During the update of the World Stress Map (WSM) database, we integrated the China stress database by strictly using the internationally developed quality ranking scheme for each individual stress data record. This effort resulted in a comprehensive and reliable dataset for the crustal stress of China and its adjacent areas with almost double the amount of data records from the WSM database release 2008, i.e., a total of 8228 data records with reliable A-C qualities in the region of 45–155° East and 0–60° North. We use this dataset for an analysis of the stress pattern for the orientation of maximum compressive horizontal stress (SHmax). In contrast to earlier findings that suggested that the mean SHmax orientation would be aligned with the direction of plate motion, we clearly see from our results that the plate boundary forces, as well as topography and faulting, are important control factors for the overall stress pattern. Furthermore, the smoothing results indicate that the SHmax orientation in China rotates clockwise from the west to the east, which results in a fan-shaped crustal stress pattern for the continental scale. The plate boundary forces around China, which are the Indian-Eurasian plate collision in the west and the Pacific plate subduction and the push from the Philippine plate in the east, can still be seen as the key driving processes and the first-order controls for the crustal stress pattern. The South-North seismic zone can be seen as the separation zone for the western and eastern plate boundary forces. Topographic variation and faulting activity, however, provide second-order changes, and lead to local variations and different inhomogeneity scales for the stress pattern. Due to differences in these factors, Northeast China and the central part of the Tibetan plateau have notably homogeneous stress patterns, while the South-North seismic zone, the Hindu Kush-Pamir region, and the Taiwan region have extremely inhomogeneous stress patterns. Furthermore, the different behaviors of stress orientations around continental and oceanic plate boundaries could imply that complicated mechanisms exist and warrant further and more specific studies.