Distribution characteristics of Rayleigh wave group velocity in China mainland and its adjacent sea areas

Abstract

Making use of 75 earthquake data of China mainland and adjacent areas recorded by long period seismometers of 27 stations of China and 3 stations of WWSSN and processed by match-filtering frequency-time analysis technique and grid dispersion inversion, the authors obtain pure-path dispersion curves of Rayleigh surface wave in 147 grids in this paper. The distribution characteristics of group velocity are as follows:the China mainland and its adjacent sea areas are divided into two parts of east and west by South-North belt and are separated in blocks of south and north with boundaries of 44°–44°N,28°N (in the west part) and 28°–32°N (in the east part), the first and third boundaries may extend eastward into sea regions, in the west side of island arc and continental shelves, appears belt-form distribution of group velocity striping NE direction. These distribution characteristics correspond to zonation of tectonic structure. In addition, the results also indicate that the differences of group velocity dispersion curves exist between tectonic elements of next order. It is revealable for the differences of group velocity among different tectonic elements until periodT = 113s (corresponding depth is about 170km).