Table Of ContentEARTHQUAKE RESEARCH
AND ANALYSIS –
SEISMOLOGY,
SEISMOTECTONIC AND
EARTHQUAKE GEOLOGY
Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico
Earthquake Research and Analysis –
Seismology, Seismotectonic and Earthquake Geology
Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico
Published by InTech
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Copyright © 2012 InTech
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First published February, 2012
Printed in Croatia
A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]
Earthquake Research and Analysis – Seismology, Seismotectonic and Earthquake Geology,
Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-307-991-2
Contents
Preface IX
Chapter 1 Earthquakes in History –
Ways to Find out About the Seismic Past of a Region 1
Friedrich Barnikel and Mark Vetter
Chapter 2 The Traces of Earthquake (Seismites):
Examples from Lake Van Deposits (Turkey) 21
Serkan Üner, Çetin Yeşilova and Türker Yakupoğlu
Chapter 3 Parameters of the Strong Paleoearthquakes Along the
Talas-Fergana Fault, the Kyrgyz Tien Shan 33
A.M. Korjenkov, D. Rust, A. Tibaldi and S.V. Abdieva
Chapter 4 Generation Mechanism of Giant Earthquakes in
Subduction Zones with Smaller-Size Interplate
Earthquakes During Interseismic Period 85
Takane Hori, Mamoru Hyodo and Shin’ichi Miyazaki
Chapter 5 Frictional Characteristics in Deeper Part of
Seismogenic Transition Zones on a
Subduction Plate Boundary 105
Keisuke Ariyoshi and Yoshiyuki Kaneda
Chapter 6 Characteristics of Coseismic Thrust-Related Folding
from Paleoseismic Investigation Responsible for the
1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake of Central Taiwan 125
Wen-Shan Chen, Nobuhisa Matsuta and Chih-Cheng Yang
Chapter 7 Focal Depth Determination for Moderate and
Small Earthquakes by Modeling Regional
Depth Phases sPg, sPmP, and sPn 143
Shutian Ma
Chapter 8 Relating Crustal Structure and Stress
Indicators in the Azores Islands 167
Nuno Dias and Luís Matias
VI Contents
Chapter 9 Electromagnetic View of the Seismogenic
Zones Beneath Island Arcs 183
Hiroaki Toh and Takuto Minami
Chapter 10 S Wave Velocity Structure in Non-Tectonic SE Asia
by Seismogram Analysis of the Earthquakes in
Sumatra-Java at TATO Station, Taiwan 199
Bagus Jaya Santosa
Chapter 11 Tectonic Background of the Wenchuan Earthquake 215
Yunsheng Wang, Runqiu Huang, Yonghong Luo, Hongbiao Xu,
Shitian Wang, Liangwen Jiang and Yusheng Li
Chapter 12 Non-Linear Analysis of Point Processes Seismic
Sequences in Guerrero, Mexico: Characterization
of Earthquakes and Fractal Properties 235
E. Leticia Flores-Marquez and Sharon M. Valverde-Esparza
Chapter 13 Rock-Fluid Interaction Along Seismogenic Faults
Infered from Clay Minerals in Okitsu Mélange,
the Cretaceous Shimanto Belt, SW Japan 253
Yoshitaka Hashimoto and Umihiko Kaji
Chapter 14 Some Complexity Studies of Electroseismic
Signals from Mexican Subduction Zone 271
L. Guzmán-Vargas, R. Hernández-Pérez,
F. Angulo-Brown and A. Ramírez-Rojas
Chapter 15 Hydrological and Geochemical Changes Related to
Earthquakes - Examples: Three Great Earthquakes of
the XX Century in the Southern Apennines (Italy) 293
Raimondo Pece and Giuseppe Tranfaglia
Chapter 16 ESR Techniques for the Detection
of Seismic Frictional Heat 317
Tatsuro Fukuchi
Chapter 17 Change of Pore Fluid Pressure Versus
Frictional Coefficient During Fault Slip 341
Yuta Mitsui
Chapter 18 Integrated Morphometric Analysis in GIS
Environment Applied to Active Tectonic Areas 357
Rosa Nappi and Giuliana Alessio
Chapter 19 The Automated Identification of Volcanic Earthquakes:
Concepts, Applications and Challenges 377
Mauricio Orozco-Alzate, Carolina Acosta-Muñoz
and John Makario Londoño-Bonilla
Preface
This book presents different aspects of earthquake research. In includes syntheses of
recent works combined with new results and interpretations, applicable to diverse
branches of earthquake seismology and geology.
The destructive potential of earthquakes depends on their magnitude and the
placement of the hypocenter. Worldwide efforts, such as the Global Seismographic
Network of seismological and geophysical sensors and data centers, provides
information that is essential to identify earthquake locations, understand the physics
of the earthquakes and faulting mechanisms, as well as studies on paleoseismicity and
earthquakes in the human history. These types of studies play a key role in mitigating
earthquake hazards and planning emergency response. Geological studies on tectonic
landforms and advances in the theoretical and applied physics of seismology have led
to the creation of numerical models for seismic activity, improvement of design
methods and testing practices for earthquake-resistant construction and seismic
retrofit, as well as observation and monitoring. The study of earthquakes combines
science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to
minimize human and material losses when their occurrence is inevitable.
The chapters in this book are devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and
analysis, such as seismology, seismotectonic and earthquake geology.
The first chapter presents a study on ways to find out about the seismic past of a
region. This is really important because identification and reliable description of past
earthquakes is of great importance for the seismic assessment in a particular area and
it represents a reliable projection of future earthquakes. Even though the paper focuses
on, but is not limited to, German attempts, it offers a clear picture of historical
earthquakes and their reception history, ancient and early modern attempts to collect
earthquake information, early earthquake catalogue compilation and open source
ways to collect earthquake information.
Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the trace of earthquakes through some examples of seismites
from Turkey and through studies on paleoearthquakes in Central Asia. The authors
describe sedimentary beds disturbed by seismic shaking known as seismites. The main
goal of chapter 2 is to determine the different deformation structures in Lake Van
X Preface
deposits, interpret the triggering mechanism and discuss the importance of these
structures in regional tectonic. Chapter 3 focuses on strong paleoearthquakes along the
Talas-Fergana Fault to improve the understanding of the intracontinental deformation
of the Tien Shan mountain belt as a whole, and the occurrence of strong earthquakes
along the largest wrench structure in Central Asia.
Chapter 4 presents some study on paleoseismic investigation. The authors analyzed
the paleoseismic evidence for earthquake rupture at four excavated sites along the
fault responsible for the destructive earthquake in Taiwan in 1999 (Mw=7.6). They
suggest that “the evolutionary path of thrust-related folds develops from fault-
propagation folding to breakthrough fault-propagation folding, and finally to fault-
bend folding”.
Chapter 5 deals with the generation mechanism of giant earthquakes in subduction
zones. The authors discuss a numerical simulation approach in order to set up a model
in subduciton zones. They were able to quantitatively explain the features of the 2011
M9 earthquake in Japan using a hierarchical asperity model.
Chapter 6 also deals with earthquakes in subduction zones by investigating the
process and mechanisms of slow-earthquake migration. The chapter presents a
comparison of results obtained by observation and numerical simulations.
Furthermore, the authors discuss a new method for detecting changes around
important asperities before megathrust earthquake.
Chapter 7 is an example of a seismology paper and deals with the determination of
focal depth of small and moderate earthquakes using teleseismic depth phases, which
is crucial information for many studies in seismology. The chapter shows several
examples and comparisons among the focal depth obtained using teleseismic phase as
well as other results obtained using other methods, and the consistency in the
comparisons is good.
Chapter 8 investigates the crustal structure of the Azorean plateau region, describing
the results obtained by using 1-D and 3-D inversions. It illustrates the use of several
techniques well-known in earthquake seismology and shows the results of intense
seismic and volcanic activity.
Chapter 9 deals with identifications of structure in non-tectonic areas inferred using
seismogram analysis of earthquakes recorded in Taiwan.
Chapter 10 presents results on the tectonic background of the Wenchuan earthquake
area. Due to the complicated tectonic environment of northwestern Sichuan, several
different results are presented. The paper sheds light on the tectonic process of the
area and tries to clarify several hypotheses.
Chapter 11 reports statistical studies applied to seismology. In particular, two different
approaches are used to investigate non-linear analysis. Fractal approach to characterize
