The fault parameters of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake were studied in a rupture directivity analysis by simultaneously inverting the period of the rst Fourier spectral-node and the 100-s phase-delay time of the Rayleigh wave. The results show that the earthquake is a unilateral event with an optimal rupture azimuth of N59• E, consistent with the distribution of aftershocks. They also indicate that the fault plane strike is in the NE-SW direction, corresponding to the fault plane strike of 238• and NW-dipping (reported by the USGS). The inversion shows the source duration (including the rise time and rupture time) and rise time are 70±0.8 s and 9.3±0.6 s, respectively. The rupture velocity estimated only from the rupture time exhibits relatively higher value, 3.45±0.10 km/s, close to or larger than the S-wave velocity in the crust. One possible cause is that the rupture mechanism transferred from the thrust faulting in the southwestern portion of the fault to the strike-slip faulting in the northeastern one. The rise time offers an estimate of the dynamic stress drop (37.8±2.3 bars), from which through a macroscopic view the radiated seismic energy of (5.93±0.4) × 10 16 N m is calculated. Although the estimated rupture length (∼210 km) and source duration are shorter than several source rupture models, the current analyses show the rst-order rupture feature of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake rupturing the Longmenshan fault zone.
<p>Understanding fault zone dynamics in multi-scale is important to embrace the complexity of the earthquake behavior and its natural system. However, the opportunity to map and observe the fault zone behavior at depth with high spatial resolution are rare as also the challenge itself on targeting and identifying the fault zone at depth. We placed a 3D cross-fault fiber array with a downhole loop from surface to depth of 700m for Hole-A (Hanging wall site, crossing fault at depth), after drilling and coring to a frequent slip fault, Milun fault in a plate boundary zone, which ruptured during the 6 February 2018 Mw6.4 Hualien earthquake, and resulted in severe damage to several tall buildings with tens of casualties and injuries. Then, the surface segment crosses the surface fault rupture zone using commercial fiber, and to another downhole loop of 500m fiber for Hole-B (Footwall site). The high spatial resolution from distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) allows us to characterize the fault zone feature together with the retrieved core and geophysical logs after drilling through this frequent slip zone. This 3D route includes the experiment of using commercial fiber to the future application of surface rupture zone identification for seismic hazard mitigation. The project successfully retrieved the fault core associated with Milun fault zone, which could be also seen in geophysical logs with low velocity and resistivity, and mapped using Optical Fiber Sensing technique of the downhole fiber. Within the Milun fault zone, while a 20m thick fault core with grey and black gouge was discovered, a distinct seismic feature associated with this 20m fault gouge was found by its amplification of the strain records from DAS. This amplification ratio is about 2.5-3 when compared to the channels at deeper depth related to a consolidated rock material.&#160; This amplification factor was frequency and azimuth independently, as genuinely observed from all events (e.g. local, and teleseismic earthquakes) with similar amplification factor. Our study shows that the amplification from this 20m fault gouge zone is mainly from the nature of the heterogeneous medium in elastic constant while crossing the fault zone, especially the fault core. Similar feature at surface but with wider surface rupture zone (~ 200m) was found in DAS data as well although less evidence using commercial fiber, while could be validated from the densely deployed geophones crossing the surface rupture of the 2018 Hualien earthquake. Through the depth, a high-resolution asymmetric feature of this active fault was evidenced from the downhole optical fiber and cores. This fault zone behavior would be hardly seen or confirmed without continuous viewing of the wavefields to this high spatial resolution to meter scale. Although the narrow fault gouge, the nature of its amplification in strain due to its strong material contrast from fault gouge was intriguing, and requires intensive attention to consider the contribution of the fault zone heterogeneity in the medium. This might give hints on the understanding of the observation of earthquake dynamics triggering reported worldwide after the occurrence of a mega-earthquake.</p>
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