Study on Seismic Zoning of Sino-Mongolia Arc Areas

Abstract:

According to the agreement of Cooperation on seismic zoning between Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration and Research Center of Astronomy and Geophysics, Mongolian Academy of Science, the data of geotectonics, active faults, seismicity and geophysical field were collected and analyzed, then field investigation proceeded for Bolnay Faults, Ar Hutul Faults and Gobi Altay Faults, and a uniform earthquake catalogue of Mongolia and North China were established for the seismic hazard study in Sino-Mongolia arc areas. Furthermore the active faults and epicenters were mapped and 2 seismic belts and their 54 potential seismic sources are determined. Based on the data and results above mentioned the seismicity parameters for the two seismic belts and their potential sources were studied. Finally, the seismic zoning with different probability in Sino-Mongolia arc areas was carried out using China probabilistic hazard analysis method.

By analyzing the data and results, we draw the following main conclusions. Firstly, the origin of tectonic stress field in the study areas is the collision and pressure of the India Plate to Eurasian Plate, passing from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This is the reason why the seismicity is higher in the west than in the east, and all of earthquakes with magnitude 8 or greater occurred in the west. Secondly, the determination of the 2 arc seismic belts, Altay seismic belt and Bolnay-Baikal seismic belt, are reasonable in terms of their geotectonic location, geodynamic origin and seismicity characteristics. Finally, there are some differences between our results and the Mongolia Intensity Zoning map published in 1985 in terms of shape of seismic zoning map, especially in the areas near Ulaanbaatar. We argue that our relsults are reasonable if we take into account the data use of recent study of active faults and their parameters, so it can be used as a reference for seismic design.