Some evidences for earthquake occurrence in the shallow crust in some areas of North China and Southwest China

Abstract

The parameters of hypocentral location are important fundamental data for the study of seismology and the earth interior physics; among them, the focal depth is a very important one but can hardly be measured with higher precision. With the increase of seismic stations in number, the heightening of observation quality and the improvement of determination method, such a situation has been changed much. In this paper, the results of hypocentral location and re-location by 7 small-aperture digital seismic station networks at Tangshan, Zhangbei and Huailai of Hebei Province, Datong of Shanxi Province and Jianchuan, Luquan and Yao’an of Yunnan Province are used. Using these results together with those of focal depth inversion by far-field data of some individual large shocks in corresponding areas and those re-determined by the Linfen telemetered seismic network of Shanxi Province, a comparison with the results of focal depth determination in the past earthquake catalogues is made. It is found out that the focal depths determined by the small-aperture seismic networks are basically distributed in the range from the earth surface to ten-odd kilometers underground. In contrast, the focal depths determined in the past are mostly distributed at the depth range from the earth surface to 30 km underground. Besides, there is a difference of 50% to 100% between the average values of the two cases, which is quite an obvious one. From the result of analysis, it is considered that the results determined by the small-aperture seismic networks may be closer to the reality of focal depths distribution. That is to say, earthquakes in the above-mentioned areas should be distributed in the shallow part of the crust. The causes that lead to the above situation are discussed preliminarily, and some suggestions and measures for improving the precision of focal depth determination are put forward.