Shear wave splitting analysis of local earthquakes from dense arrays in Shimian, Sichuan

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The Shimian area of Sichuan sits at the junction of the Bayan Har block, Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block, and Yangtze block, where several faults intersect. This region features intense tectonic activity and frequent earthquakes. In this study, we used local seismic waveform data recorded using dense arrays deployed in the Shimian area to obtain the shear wave splitting parameters at 55 seismic stations and thereby determine the crustal anisotropic characteristics of the region. We then analyzed the crustal stress pattern and tectonic setting and explored their relationship in the study area. Although some stations returned a polarization direction of NNW-SSE, a dominant polarization direction of NW-SE was obtained for the fast shear wave at most seismic stations in the study area. The polarization directions of the fast shear wave were highly consistent throughout the study area. This orientation was in accordance with the direction of the regional principal compressive stress and parallel to the trend of the Xianshuihe and Daliangshan faults. The distribution of crustal anisotropy in this area was affected by the regional tectonic stress field and the fault structures. The mean delay time between fast and slow shear waves was 3.83 ms/km, slightly greater than the values obtained in other regions of Sichuan. This indicates that the crustal media in our study area had a high anisotropic strength and also reveals the influence of tectonic complexity resulting from the intersection of multiple faults on the strength of seismic anisotropy.