Studies from Institute of Crustal Dynamics Reveal New Findings on Geology (Earthquake Rupture Scaling Relations for Mainland China)

2020 JAN 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Daily China News -- Current study results on Geology have been published. According to news reporting originating in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Magnitude-rupture scaling relations describe how the length, width, and area of fault rupture vary with earthquake magnitude. These parameters are required in seismic hazard models to fit the models’ earthquakes onto faults and to define the site-rupture distances needed in ground-motion prediction equations.”

Financial supporters for this research include Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM Global), National Key and Development Project of China, Institute of Crustal Dynamics, China Earthquake Administration.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Institute of Crustal Dynamics, “We collected the magnitude and rupture parameters of 91 earthquakes in Mainland China and nearby regions to study magnitude-rupture scaling relations. We find no systematic deviations for the subsurface rupture length (RLD) obtained from different methods versus earthquake magnitude. We performed regressions of RLD versus magnitude and versus rupture width using general orthogonal regression. Then, we derived the relations between rupture area and magnitude. Our relations are not statistically different from the results derived by others using global datasets, if the parameters of the five pre-1900 great earthquakes in eastern China are not used.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “However, if the five earthquakes are used, the magnitude-rupture length scaling relation for large strike-slip earthquakes in eastern China gives shorter rupture lengths than earthquakes in western China and other plate boundary regions in the world.”

For more information on this research see: Earthquake Rupture Scaling Relations for Mainland China. Seismological Research Letters, 2020;91(1):248-261. Seismological Research Letters can be contacted at: Seismological Soc Amer, 400 Evelyn Ave, Suite 201, Albany, CA 94706-1375, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Cheng, China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Crustal Dynamics, Beijing, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include X.W. Xu, Y.F. Rong, H. Magistrale and G.H. Chen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220190129. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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