Preliminary analysis of the shear-wave splitting observations from the Qiaojia seismic array

A total of 351 shear-wave splitting results at 25 stations were obtained from the seismic data recorded in period of January, 2013 to December, 2016, by a broadband seismic array deployed in the northern segment of Xiaojiang Fault Zone (n-XJFZ). Meanwhile, the stress field of the n-XJFZ was determined by inverting 140 focal mechanism solutions of the small earthquakes within the study area which were recorded in the same period. This determination confirmed a compressive stress in NW-SE orientation and an extensional stress in the NE-SW orientation, with little difference from those released by previous studies. The shear-wave splitting results show a spatial complexity in polarization orientation, different from one site to another. However, the polarization orientations integrated for the subareas suggest that the fault trends seemingly played important roles. All the subareas bear two dominant orientations, N10 degrees E and N90 degrees E, both of which are different from the azimuths of the principal compressive stress, due to the fault distribution. The time delay averaged over the entire region is 4.56 ms/km, close to that of the upper boundary of the generally accepted interval worldwide but larger than those in most of the investigated regions in the Chinese mainland, which probably implies an alignment of more micro-cracks in the n-XJFZ. Interestingly, the 2014 M(S)6.5 Ludian earthquake was found to have caused a variation in the time delays of the slow shear waves within the study area though its epicenter was outside. This earthquake resulted in an evident drop of the time delays remaining for 4 months, however, lifted a bit the time-delay level with respect to that prior to the earthquake.