Publication Date:
2018-02-26
Description:
The North China Plain (NCP) is a region with high level of seismic hazard. Previous Global Positioning System measurements, however, have shown a near absence of present-day crustal deformation. Using updated Global Positioning System data covering three blocks of the eastern China, we discover that interseismic deformation in the NCP takes place in an ~1,100 km wide left-lateral shear zone of roughly east-west orientation. The 6.0 ± 1.3 mm/yr interseismic left-lateral shear over the NCP results in contemporary deformation that is eventually accommodated by earthquake ruptures of right-lateral strike-slip along the north-northeast trending faults and anticlockwise block rotates. We suggest that rapid eastward motion of the rigid South China block, with respect to the rigid Amurian block, has created a left-lateral shear couple to twist the nonrigid NCP to form the contemporary deformation. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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