Earthquake location and velocity structure in Yibin area, Sichuan

Small earthquakes have been recorded in Yibin area, Sichuan Province since 1970, the frequency and intensity of seismicity have shown an increasing trend in recent ten years, and the earthquakes are distributed mainly in Changning, Gongxian and Junlian areas. Based on the seismic data from January 2008 to May 2015 recorded by Sichuan and Yunnan regional networks and Yibin local network, seismicity analysis, precise location and velocity structure inversion for earthquakes in Yibin area are carried out, the three-dimensional spatial distribution of seismic activity and the velocity structure at different depths in this region are investigated, trying to analyze the seismic activity law and seismogenic mechanism in Yibin area. The earthquake relocation result shows that the spatial cluster distribution of earthquakes is more obvious in Yinbin area, the earthquakes are concentrated in Changning-Gongxian and Gongxian-Junlian regions. The seismic activity presents two dominant directions of NW and NE in Changning-Gongxian region, and shows asymmetric conjugate distribution, the long axes of NW-trending and NE-trending seismic concentration area are about 30km and 12km respectively, and the short axes are about 5km. There is a seismic sparse segment near Gongxian, the frequency and intensity of seismicity in the southeast side are obviously higher than that in the northwest side, and the earthquakes with larger magnitude are relatively deep, the focal depth is gradually shallower with the distance away from Gongxian. Seismic activity is sparse in the west and dense in the east in Gongxian-Junlian region, the predominant direction of earthquakes in the seismic dense area of the eastern segment is NE. Seismic activity extends in opposite direction in the easternmost part of the two earthquake concentrated area. The P-wave velocity structure at different depths in the study area is obtained using joint inversion method of source and velocity structure. In view of the predominant focal depth in this region, this paper mainly analyzes the velocity structure of the upper crust within 10km. Within this study area, the P-wave velocity of earthquake concentration areas is relatively high within 10km of the predominant focal depth, especially in the northwest of Gongxian and eastern Junlian area, the P-wave velocity on the southeast of Gongxian increases gradually with depth, especially at 6km depth. These high-velocity zones are generally related to brittle and hard rocks, where the stress is often concentrated. Comparing earthquake distribution and velocity structure, seismic activity in this area mainly occurs in high-low velocity transition areas, the inhomogeneity of velocity structure may be one of the factors controlling earthquake distribution. The transition zone of high and low velocity anomalies is not only the place where stress concentrates, but also the place where the medium is relatively fragile, such environment has the medium condition of accumulating a large amount of strain energy and is prone to fracture and release stress. © 2019, Editorial Office of Seismology and Geology. All right reserved.