Slip rate along the Lijiang-Ninglang fault zone estimated from repeating microearthquakes

Abstract

Seismicity and slip rates along the Lijiang-Ninglang fault zone between 1999 and 2006 were investigated with the waveform data recorded by the Yunnan digital Seismic Network. The relocated seismicity by the double difference method clearly exhibits different features between the northern and southern segments. More than 76% earthquakes occurred in the southern segment of the fault near the Lijiang area. The relocated seismicity appears to reflect the crustal velocity structure of the study area. Using cross-correlation analysis, we identified a total of 92 doublets and 70 multiplets that show high waveform similarity. Most of these sequences are aperiodic with recurrence intervals varying from a few minutes to hundreds of days. Using two sequences that occurred regularly over the study period, we obtained a fault slip rate of approximately 5 mm/a at ∼23 km, in good agreement with geologic and surface GPS measurement.