Abstract
AbstractIt is very unusual that nine large earthquakes of similar magnitudes (M=6.1–6.8) occurred within a very small area over a very short period of time (1997–1998) in Jiashi region of Xinjiang Province, Northwest China. This paper investigates the sequence of aftershocks in the Jiashi area for the purpose of studying the generating mechanism and deep structural background of the Jiashi earthquake swarm. The simultaneous inversion method was used to calculate hypocenter positions and 3‐D velocity structure of the region. Results indicate that the aftershocks were concentrated along a NNE‐trend belt that roughly coincides with a NE‐trending belt of the two strong earthquake belts. Velocity structure obtained from 3‐D inversion suggests that there exist two low velocity zones, one trending NNE and the other NNW, at depths below 12km. These low velocity zones are almost coincident with earthquake zones and correspond to two deep crustal faults. At the time of our observations, microearthquakes occurred on the NNE‐trending fault, while the NNW‐trending fault was relatively quiescent.
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