A rupture blank zone in middle south part of Longmenshan Faults: Effect after Lushan M s7.0 earthquake of 20 April 2013 in Sichuan, China

• DOI: 10.1007/s11430-014-4827-2
• Publication Date: 2014-05-21T09:11:44Z
• Authors: Yuan Gao; Qiong Wang; Bo Zhao; YuTao Shi
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

On April 20, 2013, the Lushan M s7.0 earthquake struck at the southern part of the Longmenshan fault in the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China. The shear-wave splitting in the crust indicates a connection between the direction of the principal crustal compressive stress and the fault orientation in the Longmenshan fault zone. Our relocation analysis of the aftershocks of the Lushan earthquake shows a gap between the location of the rupture zone of the Lushan M s7.0 earthquake and that of the rupture zone of the Wenchuan M s8.0 earthquake. We believe that stress levels in the crust at the rupture gap and its vicinity should be monitored in the immediate future. We suggest using controlled source borehole measurements for this purpose.