Applying the Coulomb Failure Function with an optimally oriented plane to the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake triggering

Xu, C., Wang, J., Li, Z. and Drummond, J. (2010) Applying the Coulomb Failure Function with an optimally oriented plane to the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake triggering. Tectonophysics, 491(1-4), pp. 119-126. (doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2009.09.019)

Abstract

The Coulomb failure function (CFF) quantitatively describes static stress changes in secondary faults near the source fault of an earthquake. CFF can be employed to monitor how static stress transfers and then shed some light on the probability of successive events occurring around a source fault. In this paper we focus on the CFF and particularly on optimally oriented planes. We present a unified model to determine an optimally oriented plane and its corresponding Coulomb stress, then apply the model to the 2003 Mw 6.6 Bam (Iran) earthquake and the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan (China) earthquake, thereby checking its effectiveness. Our results show that spatial correlation between positive Coulomb stress changes and aftershocks are, for the 2003 Bam earthquake, 47.06% when elastic Coulomb stress changes are resolved on uniform planes and 87.53% when these are resolved on optimally oriented planes at depth; for the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake the correlations are 45.68% and 58.20%, respectively. It is recommended that account be taken of optimally oriented planes when drawing a Coulomb stress map for analyzing earthquake triggering effects.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Tectonophysics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Tectonophysics, [491, 1-4, (2009)] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2009.09.019
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Li, Dr Zhenhong and Drummond, Dr Jane
• Authors: Xu, C., Wang, J., Li, Z., and Drummond, J.
• Subjects: Q Science > QE Geology; G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences; G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GB Physical geography
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Tectonophysics
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0040-1951
• Published Online: 04 October 2009
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2009 Elsevier
• First Published: First published in Tectonophysics 491(1-4):119-126
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
51303	1	GAS: Generic Atmosphere Solutions for radar measurements	Zhenhong Li	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)	NE/H001085/1	School of Geographical and Earth Sciences