Recent ground fissures in the Hetao basin, Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Ground fissures are a geological hazard with complex formation mechanisms. Increasing amounts of human activity have created more ground fissures, which can destroy buildings and threaten human security. Some ground fissures indicate potentially devastating earthquakes, so we must pay attention to these hazards. This paper documents recently discovered ground fissures in the Hetao basin. These ground fissures are located along the frontal margins of the terraces of the Sertengshan piedmont fault. These fissures are 600–1600m long, 5–50cm wide, and at most 1m deep. These ground fissures emerged after 2010 and ruptured newly constructed roads and field ridges. The deep geodynamic mechanisms within this extensional environment, which is dominated by NE-SW principal compressive shear, involve N-S tensile stress, which has produced continuous subsidence in the Hetao basin and continuous activity along the Sertengshan piedmont fault since the late Quaternary. Trenches across the ground fissures reveal that the fissures are the latest manifestation of the activity of preexisting faults and are the result of creep-slip movement along the faults. The groundwater level in the Hetao basin has been dropping since the 1960s because of overexploitation, resulting in subsidence. When the tensile stress exceeds the ultimate tensile strength of the strata, the strata rupture along preexisting faults, producing ground fissures. Thus, the Sertengshan piedmont fault planes are the structural foundation of the ground fissures, and groundwater extraction induces the development of ground fissures.