On the physical model of earthquake precursor fields and the mechanism of precursors’ time-space distribution (III) — anomalies of seismicity and crustal deformation and their mechanisms when a strong earthquake is in preparation

Abstract

By studying the seismicity pattern before 37 earthquakes withM⩾6.0 in North China and the pattern of crustal deformation in the Capital Area from 1954 to 1992, some abnormal characteristics of these patterns before strong earthquakes have been extracted. A comparison has been made between the anomalies of these two kinds of patterns. From the results we can know the following. (1) Before a strong earthquake, the seismicity will strengthen and the crustal deformation rate will increase. (2) Several years before a strong earthquake, there will be seismic gaps and deformation gaps around the epicenter of the quake. (3) The dynamic parameters of patterns all show a decrease in information dimension. This means that the crustal deformation has become more and more localized with time and it gives an important indication showing that a strong earthquake is in preparation. At the end of the paper, the physical mechanisms of the abnormal patterns of seismicity and crustal deformation have been explained in a unified way in terms of the earthquake-generating model of a inhomogeneous strongbody in inhomogeneous media.